The Time Child: Wiped Out
by DanniFielding
Summary: A one-off special of the Time Child Saga. The Doctor isn't happy. Somebody has been messing with his timeline, and as a result his wife keeps flicking in and out of existence. He needs answers. He needs to stop it before she's gone for good. OC/12.
1. Prologue

This bar was absolutely disgusting. Freya scrunched her nose up the moment she stepped inside, looking around and wondering if this was really the best idea after all. She held the folded piece of paper tight in her hand as a comfort, and a reminder of why she was there in the first place. The front page of the newspaper was all she needed.

In the corner, in the shadows, was the person who had asked to meet her in such a seedy part of the space port. She was sure it was just for effect more than convenience or subterfuge, but she had agreed to it none the less. Trying to ignore the regulars and the drunks that were dotted around, hiding from their miserable lives, she made her way over.

The man who was meeting her definitely didn't look like he had been there before. He was wearing an expensive suit, his hair styled and overall he looked immaculate. However, Freya thought as she sat down across from him, he looked like he was quite at home amongst the lower end of the city's inhabitants.

"Thank you for meeting me at such short notice," he greeted genially.

"You could have picked somewhere less, you know, movie villain," Freya replied, taking another glance around them. "There's a Hampton hotel up the road, you know?"

The man chuckled. "Yes, well, call me a sucker for the ambience," he said. "What have you got for me, Freya? Did you find the earliest point in her life where they meet?"

She nodded. "You're not going to like it," she warned him as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She laid it flat on the table, pressed the touch screen a couple of times, and the data appeared in a projection in front of them.

"Just tell me," he said impatiently. "I don't have time for presentations."

"You're going to need this information," she replied. "He met her when she was born."

His brows furrowed. Freya had known that this wasn't the information that he'd been expecting. "I'm sorry?"

"Just what I said," she replied. "She was born on the TARDIS, according to what I could find. She's literally known him her entire life, probably beforehand as well from what I've found out."

She pressed the touch screen and the information displayed gathered together, forming the picture of a woman. "You know who this is, I gather?" she asked and was unsurprised when he nodded.

"River Song. The woman who killed the Doctor. Or, at the very least, the woman who got the closest. And then became friends with his wife."

Freya nodded. "That's her," she agreed. "She's also her mother."

She felt a bit a smug satisfaction when the man looked positively taken aback by the news. "There's more," Freya continued. Another press of the screen and the image transformed into a picture of a man. "This is Captain Jack Harkness, also known as the Face of Boe. Or he will be when he loses the body."

The man nodded to himself. "Yes, even without a body the man won't die," he replied. "We've known about him for a long time."

"He's her father," Freya told him. "Not only is she born on the TARDIS, but two of his closest friends are her parents. He's interweaved into her very existence."

The man sighed heavily. This was probably the worse news she could have brought him, she knew that. When she'd first been approached to look into Danielle Fielding, she hadn't been in the best state of her life. Drunk and falling over in the street had been commonplace for her, but she'd been given a purpose and she'd completely turned her life around. Still, she had no idea what they wanted the information for. "I'm guessing that's not as helpful as you thought it would be?" she pressed gently.

He didn't reply straight away, staring at the picture of the Jack Harkness without much expression on his face. "Why did you want to help us, Freya?"

Her hand instinctively closed around the piece of paper she hadn't let go of. "The Doctor rampaged through my home town," she explained quietly. "His mess caused chaos. There were gangs, my family got caught up in it. I had a career, I was a detective. I had a _husband_. Now they're all gone. All because his wife was missing. The man is a menace."

He nodded slowly before reaching forward to turn off the screen on her phone. "My masters want to put a stop to all of that," he told her. "He's an asset to the universe, but he needs to be calmed."

He stood up, picking up a coat that Freya hadn't noticed. "Thank you for your help, Freya," he told her. "We'll take it from here."

Those were the last words she ever heard. The gunshot that rang out in the bar didn't even cause the regulars to flinch. Once she had dropped to the floor, all life completely gone from her body, he bent down and tugged the newspaper from her fingers.

He pocketed it, put on his coat, and went on his way.

 _~0~0~0~_

 _Hi everyone! Welcome to the new side story. Yes, another one. Don't judge! The brainbug got away with me. Blame Tumblr XD_

 _Should be updated every week, on a Saturday, until it's done. Can't tell you how many chapters, but I'm going for 10-ish... maybe..._

 _Anyway, leave a review! Let me know if you want more. Give me motivation to continue this, because I think it'll be a hoot :D_


	2. Chapter 1

The Doctor and Danni loved each other dearly. If you didn't know them, you would struggle to understand why. Danni could be incredibly friendly, and forgiving, and maybe a bit naïve when it came to making friends. The Doctor was the opposite. He seemed cold and belittling, with very little patience for anyone at all, including his wife.

Once you got to know them, however, this wasn't quite the case. Danni was kind and happy until you hurt the people she loved. Then she could be a bigger force to be reckoned with than her husband. The Doctor didn't have patience for anyone until they proved to not be selfish and ignorant themselves. When he took you as a friend, you were never scared to call for help, and he would always come. He was loyal, and incredibly smart, and had a dry humour that took could take a moment to get but then his playful side would come through.

Either way, even if it was hard to understand, it was very easy to see that that they loved each other dearly.

This was especially evident as they prepared breakfast together. If anyone had been there, they would have seen them moving together in harmony. The Doctor was cooking, for once, while Danni prepared the cold food and drinks. They would turn and manoeuvre around each other with ease, never running into each other, and never getting in each other's way without even a word of where they were going or what they were doing.

Which is why the Doctor jumped slightly when he heard the crash of a plate as it fell to the floor. He turned to look at his wife, who was staring at the floor like she couldn't quite understand how the broken plate had ended up there.

He smirked slightly. Her own natural clumsiness always seemed to surprise her. "Did you not like that one, my Pet?" he asked as they both bent down to pick up the pieces.

"I-I guess not," she replied with a bit of a stutter. She really wasn't sure how the plate made it onto the floor. One minute she was picking it up to put the slices of melon she'd cut up onto it, the next it was hitting the floor. She didn't even remember dropping it.

"I'm sorry," she started, realising he was cleaning up her mess. "Here, I can do it."

"I'm sure you can," he agreed. "But it means I can't do this."

He leant forward, placing a kiss on her lips and she couldn't help smile at him when he pulled away. "Yeah, you're right," she said. "Cleaning up wouldn't have been half as fun without that."

He smiled at her, yet again unable to believe that she was by his side, then he stood up. "You shouldn't be apologising to me anyway," he pointed out. "You should apologise to the TARDIS, it's her plate you broke."

She nodded, looking up to the ceiling. "Sorry sweetie," she called. "You forgive me, right?"

There was no noise and Danni grinned. "Thanks!"

They both went back to finishing up their various parts of the meal, but whenever she thought the Doctor wasn't looking, he saw her face pull into a frown. She still couldn't quite remember why she dropped the plate, and it was bothering her. Her clumsiness was always accounted for, but not this. Something happened, she was sure of it, but there was no proof and no reason to think like that.

She tried to push it from her mind, and soon she forgot all about it.

 _~0~0~0~_

The next time she broke something, the Doctor noticed. Thankfully it was in the TARDIS, and they were once again alone, otherwise he knew he wouldn't have been as calm as he managed to stay.

Their bedroom was full of little bits of knick-knacks. Little treasures that she had collected over the years that were too good to stay in her old bedroom, and little things he had found her that she held dear. He'd never been into keeping souvenirs like she was, but it made her happy so he always made sure she'd gotten the best.

She'd been admiring a little figure of a dancing couple when it had happened. He hadn't even been paying much attention, if he was honest with himself, and he'd only known the item in question because she'd dropped it.

They'd been getting ready for the day, both on their side of the room where their clothes were. It had only been for a moment, but it was the longest moment he'd felt in a long time. An unfortunately familiar feeling to him from a previous body. He'd felt her disappear. Just for a moment, and by the time he'd spun around to see her she was back, but she'd gone. Erased from that moment of time, her presence had flickered like a flame and his hearts clenched painfully at the devastation of the feeling.

He turned, alarmed, just in time for the statue to bounce off the chest of drawers it had been sat on and smash into three large pieces. Danni was there, but she wobbled and he was by her side in a shot. One arm wrapped around her torso to keep her upright while she grabbed the other tightly.

"Are you okay?" he asked her urgently and she shook her head.

"I-I don't know what happened," she replied weakly. "I just- I don't remember letting go."

"It's okay," he reassured her. "Let's just sit you down."

He perched her on the edge of the bed before crouching between her legs so he could meet her eye. He made sure to smile reassuringly at her, keeping the panic inside as to not make hers any worse. "I'm just going to check you over," he told her. "Just sit tight."

He pulled out his screwdriver from the jacket he'd shrugged on before she'd disappeared, and only the slightest shake of his hand gave away his worry. If Danni noticed, though, she didn't say anything and let him scan her over.

It gave him nothing, which was incredibly annoying. While it might have reassured him to know nothing was wrong, instead it just worried him that it was something greater than he could detect. He let the screwdriver drop to the ground to cup her face with both hands.

"What do you remember?" he asked her as he tilted her head back, looking into her eyes as he did. "Did you see anything? Did you feel anything?"

She shook her head. "No I was just looking at the statue. Remember, you got me it when I didn't get to go with you, Amy and Rory to see the London Ballet?" He let her head fall back into a comfortable position, removing one hand to cup her face as tears gathered in her eyes. "I didn't mean to drop it, I don't remember dropping it. I'm sorry Theta, I loved it so much."

"I know," he quickly replied. "She'll probably fix it for you, don't worry."

She sniffed. "What happened?" she asked. "It happened in the kitchen too, remember? Is something wrong with me?"

"Definitely not," he promised although he really wasn't sure at all. "Come on, we'll get dressed and get going. No point hanging around."

She smiled, grateful that he was trying to keep her mind off what had happened. He always tried to hide his worry from her, and even though she knew he was concerned, she let him distract her. If it was urgent, he wouldn't hide it. "Are we picking up Clara today?"

"If you want to," he replied. "I don't know if she'd appreciate the beach I'm taking you to, though."

" _Theta!_ "

 _~0~0~0~_

The third time it happened, Clara didn't notice. She didn't notice that Danni flashed out of existence for one minutes and seventeen seconds. She didn't notice because, the moment she disappeared, so did any memory of her.

They were running down a hallway. A rather common occurrence that a lot of their companions would often complain about. Gunfire rang loudly in the hallway and they'd just dashed around yet another corner to escape it.

The Doctor came to a skidding halt, his eyes wide in panic. "Danielle?!" he cried out because he'd felt it. Yet again her presence being torn from the fabric of time rippled through him like pins and needles, all heading straight for his hearts.

Clara frowned as he ducked his head around the corner to see if she was still there. Hoping that he was mistaken, and that he'd just missed her falling behind and it was his mind's way of reminding him to check on her. A rogue bullet bounced off the corner above his head and he darted back around.

"Who's Danielle?" she asked in confusion before pointing at him rapidly. "Oh, oh, is she the little girl they're looking for?"

"Of course not," he snapped. "She's my wife, do keep up."

Clara wondered, for a moment, if the bullet had actually managed to graze his head without either of them noticing. "Did you get married without telling me?"

He rolled his eyes and Clara became rather irate by the way he looked incredibly exasperated at her questioning. "I don't know who Danielle is! And I'm sure you're making her up, so let's get going before we're, you know, _shot!_ "

"Yes, you do," he retorted, ducking his head back around to check the situation. The soldiers were running towards them at full speed. At most they had another minute before they had to get moving. Luckily the ones who had been shooting at them had used long range guns and weren't an immediate threat. "And we can't move _anywhere_ until Danielle comes back."

"What?" Clara exclaimed. "So, you're just going to stand here and get shot because you've decided you've got a wife?"

"I do have a wife," he replied factually and irritably. "She is coming back, and we're not leaving until she does."

"Fine," Clara snapped. "You stay here and get killed. I'm going to the TARDIS."

"Fine," the Doctor agreed quickly. "Have fun, I'm sure she'll keep you warm when she refuses to fly because you didn't wait for Danielle."

Clara growled at him. "I'm not waiting around for some… some _figment_ of your…"

Clara trailed off as the Doctor's hearts sang in relief. Danielle reappeared in the hallway incredibly disorientated, and about six large strides away from him. She wobbled again, much like she had done the second time, but the Doctor was running out to catch her before she could fall.

"Run," he told her. "Now."

She nodded and they made their way behind the corner once again. Clara was staring at her like she couldn't believe she was stood in front of her. "You- You," she stuttered. "I forgot you. How did I forget you?"

"I don't know," the Doctor replied shortly. "But we have to run. Guns, soldiers, remember?"

 _~0~0~0~_

They had all been distracted for the rest of the adventure. The Doctor had saved the day, of course he had. The little girl was reunited with her parents and the bad guys who had wanted to use her for their own end had been dealt with by the planet's own justice system. However, unlike normal, the victory wasn't celebrated. They'd all just headed back to the TARDIS is relative silence. It reminded Clara much more of a time when the adventure would have been less successful.

Danni had taken a seat when they'd all approached the console and the Doctor had shrugged off his jacket, draping it over her shoulders before he'd flown them away. He knew that she wasn't cold, but rather that it would give her the comfort she needed while he tried to search for the point when she'd been removed from time.

"What's happening to me?" she asked quietly, pulling his jacket tighter around her.

"I just forgot her," Clara added. "I mean, her disappearing is one thing, but it was like she'd never existed."

Danni looked absolutely horrified, a coldness falling on her as she shrunk into his jacket further. "I didn't exist?" she whispered.

"No," he replied sharply before catching himself at her whimper. "No, what I mean is that you did exist, but then you were erased."

She whimpered again and he knew that he wasn't helping at all. He turned back to face her, walking over and crouching much like he had done in the bedroom. He placed a hand on each of her legs and gently stroked her through her trousers with his thumbs. "I remembered you," he reassured gently. "And Clara did too, the moment you came back. We just have to work out what's causing these flickers in your timeline and put them out."

"Put them out?" she asked and he nodded.

"Just like that," he replied, like it was that simple. "You've just got a little bit of corrupted data, but it's easily fixed."

Her smile said that she believed him, although whether that was down to his fantastic reassurance skills or because she didn't want to think about it not working, he wasn't sure. But as he stood up and looked over her head at Clara, he could tell she hadn't bought it one bit.

 _~0~0~0~_

 _Thanks for the lovely response to the prologue! I hope you liked this one as well! I wasn't sure if I was going to update because of the stupid problems this website has been having, but then I did it anyway XD_

 _I don't think I'll answer reviews in this one unless there's something to answer. Like questions or something. Just know that I appreciate each and every one, and they keep me writing :)_


	3. Chapter 2

Danni started to leave little messages around the TARDIS. At first the Doctor had thought that they were little notes to remind him of things. A cup of tea with ' _Danni's drink'_ written next to it to stop him drinking it, or a post-it on the bedroom door that proclaimed that she was in the shower. He guessed it was to keep him from going in while she was in there, but knowing that she was stretched out underneath the water, back arched and completely naked wasn't something he could even pretend to ignore.

He realised, though, when he found the one on the console that read ' _I've just nipped to the kitchen 11:13am_ ' that it was more than that though. The bright pink paper should have been enough, obviously chosen to not be missed, but the implication of the words ached in his chest. She had been shaken up when she'd disappeared from time when it was just him, however Clara had really scared her. These weren't notes for him to remember things, these were notes to remind him of _her_.

He startled her when he walked into the kitchen, but she still shot him the biggest grin that she could. The one she would always wear when she saw him. "Sorry, I realised that I'd not had a cup of tea this morning," she explained. "Let me just have it, then we can go out."

He held up the little note. "I'm not going to forget you," he promised.

Her head hung, the sign of a guilty party. "I don't want to be forgotten," she whispered. "Clara forgot me so easily. One minute I was there, and the next I never existed and I don't want to…"

He stepped forward, wrapping her up in a tight embrace. "I know," he said. "But I didn't, did I? I knew, and I waited, and I will always wait." He pressed a kiss on her hair. "Besides, it's not happened in a little while. In at least a couple of months. I'm sure it's over now."

"But it did," she admitted. "And I think you knew, as well, even if you weren't sure of it." At his bewildered look, she looked away guiltily. "I knew you didn't remember, but I didn't want to point it out," she apologised. "You know when I went to Clara and Danny's for that lunch with his dad? One minute I was picking up my coat, the next they were both looking at me like they'd never seen me before in their lives and Danny… Well, Danny was about to knock me to the ground because he'd thought I'd broken in. Luckily they remembered before he did."

The Doctor's eyes darkened at the thought of anyone hurting his wife. "Bloody soldiers," he grumbled. "Always attack first and ask questions later. You're not going there again on your own."

Danni rolled her eyes slightly. While touched that he wanted to protect her, she knew that little command wouldn't last long. "Well, as soon as they remembered, the TARDIS appeared. You decided that you needed to see me, remember? You played it off like you'd landed in the wrong time, but you rushed back to see me."

If someone else had been there, he would have denied it. He would have stuck to his story of misaiming his driving and blamed it on that. However, he did remember it. He remembered the tug in his chest that he just _had_ to check on her. He'd given himself the excuse that it was because it had been a while since they'd be apart, but he hadn't totally been sure what had made him need to see her.

"Any other time?" he asked her and she shrugged.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe, I think." She sighed, turning to lean against the side. "There's times when it feels like I've missed something, but I don't know if it's just in my head now. Every time I feel even a little uncomfortable, I automatically decide I've disappeared again."

He watched his wife shuffle nervously. Not at admitting her own concerns, but at the concerns themselves. He hated seeing her so upset, especially considering that he hadn't found out what was causing it yet.

"I haven't felt like that since you went to Clara's," he replied slowly. "But if you're feeling the absence, we're going to have to do some more thorough investigations."

"I was thinking of going to see the Face of Boe," she admitted. "He said, last time, that he remembered me being erased. Maybe he knows something about this time as well?"

The Doctor agreed. A couple of times was unacceptable, but knowing it was happening without him even realising was downright terrifying.

He didn't want her to know that, though. Even now, after all this time, she was looking up at him with those bright eyes, unconsciously looking to him for reassurance. So, he shot her that smile that always seemed to relax her. "After the tea, though," he told her. "No need to rush for Captain Flash."

"You never like spending time with him," she said. His lack of urgency said that he really didn't think that it was too big of a deal. If it was, he would have told her. This Doctor never lied about things like that, he wouldn't have kept it from her. "He makes you so grumpy. I don't know why."

"He flirts with my wife," he said, as if it explained everything.

"He's my dad," she retorted, her nose scrunched up adorably in disgust.

" _You_ flirt back," he pointed out. She shrugged.

"Who wouldn't?" she replied.

"His daughter."

 _~0~0~0~_

Danielle was simply stunning. The Doctor gathered her hands up in his, pressing them above her head as he picked up his pace, taking her harder and with the desperate need she brought onto him. Her eyes were scrunched close, her mouth open in a constant pant that was broken by whimpers and breathless swear words. She hid nothing, her pleasure written plainly on her face, in the pink tint that flushed her skin. She was simply stunning.

He bared his teeth, growling through his own pleasure. He shifted her hands together, taking hold of her thin wrists with one hand. His other quickly grabbed her thigh, pulling her leg up, bringing her closer still to him.

"That's it, my Pet," he encouraged, his voice low and desperate as he was torn between watching her face ripple in unrestrained pleasure, or dipping down to taste the lips that were rapidly begging his name. "You feel so good…"

She nodded in her own desperate agreement, trying to move underneath him. He pressed his weight down heavier and she groaned in frustration. " _Theta… Theta… you bastard…_ "

He chuckled, nodding his head. "So you always say…" he replied before he found himself unable to keep his head aloft anymore. He nuzzled up against her cheek. " _You feel so good_ …" he reiterated brokenly. He couldn't believe how addictive she was, how he wanted to keep her up high forever, just so he could continue to feel it with her.

Danni couldn't take much more. That coil inside her was pulling ever tighter. Over five hundred years of knowing her meaning that he could play her perfectly, tease her up and keep her from falling, despite her constant begging.

" _Please, Theta…"_ she pleaded. " _Please, I-I- fuck I…"_

He continued his relentless pace, tasting her skin, encouraging her with temptingly dirty words in her ear. She fought helplessly to move against him in an attempt to push herself over that delicious edge. She fought against the surprisingly tight grip he had on her wrists as she grew closer… and closer… and closer…

And then it stopped.

Panting heavily, her eyes shot open in surprise as she bounced against their mattress. She'd felt his weight disappear from on top of her, his grip no longer holding her down. Her hearts were racing out on control, her body cried out for the stimulation that was rather abruptly gone.

She was still on their bed, lying naked on top of their bedding, but now completely alone. She sat up, her bliss turning into panic as she scrambled to grab the edge of one of the blue sheets to wrap around her.

" _T-Theta?!"_ she called out worriedly. She reached out onto the side table for her glasses, but she couldn't find them. Everything was so out of focus, and it terrified her all the more.

She swallowed, trying to squash down the feeling of almost coming explosively. What had happened? Had it… had she disappeared again?

The door flung open and she darted back in panic, eyes wide and blurry at the sudden intrusion into what should have been a safe space.

Luckily, even her terror-filled brain and lack of vision couldn't stop her recognising her husband. "Theta?" she repeated, this time in a whimper.

The Doctor quickly climbed onto the bed next to her, his hands hovering in front of him before cupping her face. She could feel the relief pouring off him as he pulled her close, pressing a kiss on her lips. She was too shocked to respond, but he didn't seem to care as he pulled back.

"How long was I gone?" she asked quietly.

He didn't reply straight away. He just studied her, so relieved that she was back again. One minute she had been crying out underneath him, the next he'd bounced on the bed face first as the absolute agony of her being torn from the universe ripped through him. Her whole existence had been erased, and he'd felt every moment of it disappear.

But she'd obviously reappeared as if no time had passed at all. Her skin was still flush, her lips were still dry from her panting. She shivered as the cool air of the room hit her warm skin, and her unfocused eyes were full of worry…

Oh, unfocused eyes. Right.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out her glasses and flicked out the arms, placing them on her face for her so she didn't have to let go of the sheet that covered her. "You'll be okay," he murmured, more to reassure himself than to reassure her.

"Theta, how long?" she pressed and he shrugged off his jacket, chucking it around her shoulders.

"Don't panic," he told her, although all that served to do was cause the panic in her chest to rise. "Three days, four hours and…"

She shook her head. "I-I don't need to know the minutes," she snapped. "Three days?! I was gone for three days?!"

He rubbed her arms through his jacket, trying to settle her and keep her warm at the same time. He knew the TARDIS kept the bedroom a nice temperature for her, but she had turned up a lot warmer than that. "In the grand scheme of you jumping in and out of my life, this one was pretty short," he said in a hope to make her chuckle. It didn't, though. Both of them knew this was vastly different to the way her vortex manipulator would chuck her around his life. At least then, when he wanted to talk about her, people actually knew who she was. Once he'd settled down from his own interrupted pleasure, he'd been out of the room and he'd started searching.

No one knew her, though. He'd gone back for Clara, who once again didn't remember who she was. His next port of call had been River, who had flirted with him like she actually did care about him, and it had been so unnerving that he'd quickly had to leave.

Unable to bear listening to people who should have known his wife get concerned at him talking about her, he'd settled down in the TARDIS library, looking for references of her. He went through every single book that he knew referenced an adventure that they'd been on. He'd even found that godforsaken book on the Time War that mentioned the Time Child, but there was nothing.

His memories seemed intact, though, which was the most confusing part. He didn't forget that she'd once existed, nor any of the time together. He remembered loving her, and the heartbreak of her disappearing from underneath him. What was he supposed to do when the universe forgot about her, but he didn't?

She looked up at him, a horrible thought striking her. "Did you forget about me?" she whispered and he shook his head.

"Not for a moment," he promised. "We're going to sort this out. I've been trying to sort this out."

"What did Jack say?" she asked and he opened his mouth to reassure her that even though the impossible man had forgotten her, didn't mean that he didn't care. But he froze, a frown appearing on his face.

"I didn't make it to Jack," he eventually admitted. "I for…" he trailed off before he finished his sentence, aware that it was just going to upset her.

Instead she shot him a smile. "I'll put that down to your old age," she teased with a humour that she didn't really feel. "Let me get dressed, then we can go see the big old Boe Face."

He groaned and she frowned at his disappointment. "What? What is it?"

He sighed, standing up. "Just remembering why you were undressed to begin with, my Pet," he replied. "We'll have to finish what we'd started once this is over."

She rolled her eyes, and batted him out of the room. It was nice that he was being so calm about the situation, but she really couldn't find it in herself to stay so relaxed. A couple of seconds was one thing, but three days? What was going on?


	4. Chapter 3

Danni would always find herself far more nervous to meet the Face of Boe than she ever did when she went to see Jack. With Jack, it was like going to see an old friend. She could walk in without knocking, get comfy even if he was out. She could spend all day in his flat on her own and he'd be unsurprised to find her there. While years could go between visits, their time apart always felt very short.

With the Face of Boe, it always felt so much grander. Most of her dealings with the Big Boe Face actually seemed to happen without him there. She and the Doctor would get little messages to investigate something or another. There had been a time he'd sent her into a company to save the Doctor from being used as a live computer system. But he was this mystical figure. A head of an empire that spanned centuries and galaxies. To think that she was his friend was strange. The fact he was her _father_ seemed so much so.

He always met them in such large buildings as well. She knew he must have had a home somewhere, but it was with a sense of surprise that she realised she'd never actually been. He was always travelling, he was always somewhere new, but it was always an office building.

Even now, the giant elevator they had been travelling in opened up into an even larger office. The Face of Boe was behind a desk that was obviously only for show, after all it wasn't like he could use any of the pens or papers that were laying neatly on top of it. Danni and the Doctor stepped into the room, walking side by side and over to the head and his helper, who was stood in front of the desk.

"Ah, Miss Fielding…"

" _Mrs_ ," Danni corrected her sharply. "Mrs Fielding."

The woman nodded her head in a small bow. "My apologies. Mrs Fielding, I just have a couple of forms for you and your husband to sign. A non disclosure agreement, and a disclaimer that covers this meeting."

Danni nodded. "Of course."

The woman smiled and handed the couple a small pile of paper each to sign. Danni glanced up at her husband, who caught her gaze. They then both chucked the papers over their shoulder, scattering it over the floor behind them.

"Me and my husband never sign anything," Danni explained. "You must be rather new not to know that."

The woman looked almost offended at their behaviour. "No one can see the Face of Boe without signing those papers," she exclaimed. "If you refuse to then you will have to leave."

"I don't think that is going to happen," the Doctor replied, looking down at his wife. "What do you think, my Pet?"

"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere," Danni replied cheerfully, but with a definite challenging edge to her tone.

"If you will not leave, you will be forcibly removed," the woman replied angrily.

"Forcibly removed?" Danni repeated with a little bit of a scoff. She looked past the woman to the Face of Boe, who had been silent up until that point. "Jack? Are you going to have us removed? I'm hurt."

 _Of course not_ , the voice in their heads replied. _Sarah, do calm down._

The woman, Sarah, turned to look at him, her mouth agape. "But sir! I was told explicitly that no one was to see you without filling in those forms!"

 _Yes, I know,_ he replied. _I do like watching people meet my daughter, it is always amusing. You can leave us now._

"But… but sir!" she spluttered.

 _Now, Sarah_.

Danni always found it really interesting that a telepathic voice could put on emotion. There was definitely a hard edge to Jack's internal voice when he sent the woman away, and she had obviously heard it as well.

"Of course, sir," she replied hastily before turning and dashing out of the room.

Danni sighed. "Really, Jack? I don't just come here to torment your staff."

 _But it's so much fun,_ he said with a little chuckle. _It's good to see you Danni, Doctor. What do I owe this visit to?_

Danni looked up at her husband again, this time for reassurance rather than in a joint joke. He nodded, placing a hand on her back before gently nudging her forward. "Go on, he can help," he encouraged softly.

 _What is it?_

"I'm being erased from time," Danni started quietly, already upset. Voicing it out loud to anyone who wasn't her husband suddenly made it feel all the more real. "Sometimes only for moments, but sometimes for days. I always come back but, for the time I'm gone, I never exist."

She made her way slowly to the desk. "I remember, when the Great Intelligence tried to kill the Doctor and I was erased from existance, you felt the ripples in time. You called me to visit you just to make sure I was okay. I didn't know who else to ask, because everyone else for-forgets me." Her lip quivered, the last couple of words coming out as barely a whisper.

 _Doctor,_ the giant head called. _Do you forget?_

"Never," the Doctor replied. "It's just everyone else."

Danni sniffed. "I'm really scared, Jack," she told the head softly. "One day I might not come back. Just because he hasn't forgotten me yet doesn't mean he never will."

One of the downsides of being a giant head floating around in a jar was the fact that very little, if any, contact was possible. Seeing his daughter upset had always been hard for Jack, and during the millennia he had lived it never became any easier. Unfortunately there wasn't much he could do about it.

 _Doctor,_ he said again. _Perhaps you could…_

Jack didn't need to finish his sentence, because the Doctor stepped forward and wrapped an arm around her shoulder in comfort. Danni snuggled up against him, but shot the Face of Boe a grateful smile.

 _Time is always in flux,_ the Face of Boe explained. _The waves are very hard to keep track of, as I'm sure your husband will confirm. Let me see what I can remember._

They all stayed silent, waiting for Jack to searched his gigantic memory for anything that felt out of the ordinary. His eyes closed and he seemed to take a deep breath, although Danni wasn't sure how, or if, he breathed at all.

His eyes opened. _Time is changing. Something is trying to alter the course of history. Can you feel it, Doctor?_

Danni looked up at his husband, who took a similar stance; eyes closed, deep breath as he felt along the course of time. He'd been so concerned about his wife's life slowly being unravelled that he'd not taken the time to look at his own.

His eyes snapped open. "Someone is playing with my timeline," he commented darkly. "They're not doing a very good job at it, though. Bloody amatures."

"Why would someone do that?" Danni asked. "Is that what's affecting me?"

 _Your mother would be the best place to start,_ the Face of Boe told her. _I suspect that in her studies she may have picked up something that we do not know._

"I went to River," the Doctor replied. "She had no recollection of Danni. She thought we were married," he pulled a face. "It wasn't pleasant."

"She thought you were married?" Danni asked sharply. "Like you were actually her husband?"

"She was nice to me," the Doctor continued, as if he'd been put though something awful. "It was deeply unsettling."

Danni looked at Jack. "Time is being reverted to before I came," she said. "Like it was in my other universe."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked. Danni bit her lip, still not sure how to bring this subject up. She'd hinted at it in the past, but she never wanted him to know about the television show she barely remembered from before they'd met. No one deserved that humiliation, and there was nothing they could do about it. In fact, the television show helped them so much in those early years, changing the fact that it existed probably wasn't the best idea.

"When I knew you, before I knew you," she started vaguely. "In the other universe where I grew up, you married River on top of the pyramid and you meant it. She was your wife, you loved each other a lot. She was raised by the Silence to kill you, but she became obsessed with you instead of me. If I hadn't come here, that's how time would have gone too."

"That's not right," the Doctor retorted. "I owe her a debt, but I wouldn't ever love her."

"You did," Danni corrected. "I saw it. It broke my heart and you weren't exactly…" she shrugged sheepishly. "You weren't exactly real in the other universe, either. But that was why I was always so adamant that you were going to leave me for her; I'd seen it already."

 _Time is changing to a universe unaffected by Danni's presence,_ Jack summerised. _How large are the gaps when she is not here?_

"The last one was over three days," the Doctor replied. "River is intertwined in both of our lives. It would make sense that she's affected by any change." He grabbed Danni's hand. "We have to go."

"But…" Danni stuttered, looking to Jack for an explanation.

 _I would guess that each gap is someone's attempt at changing history,_ he reasoned. _If the gaps are getting bigger, they must be becoming more successful at changing it. Soon you will not come back at all. It needs nipping in the bud._

She nodded. "Alright," she agreed, letting the Doctor pull her to the elevator again. "I'll let you know if we find anything else."

 _Take care, Danni-Girl_ , the Face of Boe told her. _And be quick._

 _~0~0~0~_

Stormcage wasn't the best home River had ever had. She'd had comfier beds, and more reading material than she had access to. However, she made her little cell her own, much to the dismay of the guards. A little box of things under her bed, a little pile of books that somehow they never seemed to be able to take away from her. And it was the longest she'd ever had a base to return to.

She didn't hate it was the crux of the matter. She didn't love it, but returning to it in the early hours of the morning after a trip out into the stars wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Still, it was always nice to hear the wheezing engines of a TARDIS whose breaks had never been taken off.

She fluffed her hair a bit, checked her reflection in her standard-issue mirror and then walked over to the cell door. With an ease that shouldn't have been possible if they had been locked, she pushed it open and glanced down the hallway at the brilliant blue box. Nothing made her day better than seeing that box in the flesh. It meant adventure, it meant new sights. It meant the most important person in the universe was about to step out.

She frowned just slightly in confusion at the old man that stepped out, dressed not unlike a magician before she realised that the Doctor must have regenerated. Well, there was always a first time for any meeting. She should know. It was a side effect of living out of order from each other.

"I wasn't expecting to see you until later," she called to the two people. "But I'm definitely not disappointed."

There wasn't much distance between them, which meant that before either of them could answer, River was already grabbing hold of the Doctor's lapel, pulling him in for a kiss.

Danni's eyes widened in surprise and she quickly reached out, shoving River off her stunned husband. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she snapped.

River just smirked. She loved new companions because it was always so easy to tease them. Especially considering how obvious the young woman fancied the Doctor. She was stood very close, her eyes full of anger at the kiss.

"Did he not tell you who I was?" River asked. She held her hand out to her. "River Song, the missus."

Danni's eyes narrowed and she didn't take her hand. "Danielle Fielding," she replied. "Also the missus."

River rolled her eyes. "Of course, he married another one," she dismissed. It wasn't exactly uncommon for the Doctor to get married. She knew hers was special, though, because she was the one who he kept coming back to.

"You don't know who I am?" Danni asked before looking up at the Doctor. "How does she not know who I am?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor replied, also concerned by the archeologists behaviour. River should have recognised Danni straight away, after all she'd spent time with this particular body on many occasions. And, even if she hadn't, the name itself should have brought out a least a little reaction. He pulled out his screwdriver, pointing it at River and setting it off.

River frowned as he scanned her. "What is it, what's going on?" she asked. "Has something happened?"

"Most definitely," the Doctor murmured. The results showed nothing out of the ordinary. He popped it back into his pocket and pointed at the blonde woman to his side. "You don't know her at all?"

River shook her head. "Maybe you're too early?" she offered. "Should I remember her?"

"You gave birth to her," the Doctor replied bluntly. "You don't remember that at all? Sleeping with Jack Harkness? Being pregnant? Nothing?"

"I'm sorry?" River asked in disbelief. "Do you expect me to believe that?"

Danni tugged on the Doctor's arm. "I don't like this," she said bluntly. River's complete disregard was really unnerving, as was the proof that her theory had been right. Without her in their lives, River and the Doctor would have been married.

"No, I don't either," the Doctor replied. Danielle still hadn't disappeared from his side, which meant that she was still in his timeline, but River proved that the damage was already becoming irreversible. He also really didn't appreciate the fact that she suddenly found it okay to kiss him, and not in the joking way she and Danni used to tease him with. That was a full on snog, and it made him feel rather uncomfortable.

He reached up and wiped his mouth, as if there was still residue on it. "When was the last time you saw us- I mean me?"

River looked between the two. "Are you going to explain what is going on here?" she demanded.

"No," the Doctor replied. "When was it?"

Well, that took care of River's worry that it wasn't the Doctor. That familiar frustration at his behaviour was building and she knew that no one could fake that. "We went to the 200th birthday of the King of Dre'em, remember?" she replied. That had been an earlier Doctor so it was safe to share the spoiler. "We danced all night underneath the…"

The Doctor pointed at her, the distress coming off his actual wife in droves. "No, no, stop it," he told her. "We didn't dance. We've _never_ danced." He grabbed Danni's hand, pulling her away. "Goodbye, River."

"Wait, Doctor!" she called after him, jogging to keep up with his long strides. "Tell me what's going on!"

"I told you, no," he snapped. "Stay here. Try not to forget anything else."

He practically shoved Danni inside the TARDIS, walking up to the console. "Where did we go after the King's birthday?" he mumbled to himself more than asking his wife. He quickly flew them into the vortex before pulling open one of the console panels.

"I don't understand," Danni declared, storming up to his side. "How can she not remember me? I'd understand if I wasn't here, but I was! She should have remembered me."

"Yes, she should have," he agreed, rummaging through the junk he kept underneath the console. "Why don't I keep this clean?"

"I told you to clean it out years ago," she pointed out. "You said you knew where everything was so it was a wasted effort."

"It was then," he replied before grabbing the book he was after. Danni's eyes widened in surprise at the blue TARDIS book that looked much less worn than River's did.

"How do you have that?" she asked.

"I know you gave River hers," he said. "It seemed like a good idea, so I got one of my own." He rotated it in his hand, looking to work out which side was the front. Each cover was identical and with no marking it was hard to tell. "Even though it was River, it felt like keeping track would probably help in the long run. I just wish it had a better cover, but I thought it would be easier to find if it looked like hers. What did we do after the King's birthday?"

He started flicking through the pages as Danni's brows furrowed in thought. "Was that when we went sailing on those green lakes?"

He shook his head. "No, that was later on. Here." He handed her the book. "Find out where we need to go next."

He hopped over to the console. "I have a couple of theories," he told her, referring to what was happening. "None of which are ideal, but we need to narrow it down. Find the right River."

"The right River?" she asked, quickly flicking through the book. She'd seen River's before, and each of the adventures had details, and some drawings, and had obviously been added in by someone who loved noting them all down. The Doctor's basically had places, names, dates and things of note. It was designed to keep track and nothing more. It was rather sad.

Then again River's rarely, if it all, mentioned the Doctor. And when it did, it was never a nice reference.

"The first River who remembers you," he clarified. "We find her, and I think we will be able to work out what's happening."


	5. Chapter 4

Danni wasn't sure why the Doctor was sending her out first. She stepped out into the stone hallway yet again, hesitating in the TARDIS doorway. She wasn't sure how much more her self esteem could take. Each time they had reappeared River still didn't know who she was, only knowing her as the woman who appeared occasionally with the Doctor. They'd gone forward in her time line, dropping in just after he dropped her off and seeing if she remembered Danni.

She didn't. Well, beyond the strange woman that her husband was acting peculiar over. The Doctor still refused to tell her, and Danni didn't have the emotional capacity to continue to protest her own existence. Being told she wasn't important by the person who had always treated you like the most important person in their universe was devastating and exhausting and Danni didn't want to do it anymore.

The Doctor had told her to head out without him, though. Sometimes to do with background radiation testing and measuring spikes in some sort of energy when she spoke to her mother. She glanced back at him at the console, then slowly headed down the stone corridor to the cell. He was making it up, she knew. He just didn't want to deal with a touchy-feely River again. To be honest she didn't want to see that again either. It was all just so… _tiring._

River had obviously heard the TARDIS arrive because she was exiting her cell, dressed to impress and obviously eager to leave the prison. She took a look at Danni and rolled her eyes. Danni winced, expecting some sort of snappy retort.

"Did he dump you here again?" River asked with a sigh. "Honestly, that husband of yours… It's a wonder you stay with him." She frowned at Danni, who seemed to have frozen in front of her and was staring like she didn't believe she existed. "What? What is it?"

"You… You think he's my husband?" Danni asked and River nodded slowly.

"I suppose so, yeah," she agreed. "Not a good one, though. You always could do better."

Danni took a couple of steps towards her, too scared to get any closer in case she broke the spell and River reverted back to the woman they'd been meeting. "Who am I?" she asked.

"Danni Fielding," River replied with furrowed brows. She glanced back at the TARDIS and had to wonder if maybe she was being tricked. Probably not, though. "Have you just regenerated?"

Danni shook her head. She wanted to believe they were finally back on track for their timeline but she just couldn't let herself yet. Her hearts were racing, hope glimmering from the woman in front of her.

"No, tell me who I am to you," she replied urgently. "Please, River, just… just tell me."

"You're my daughter," River replied. "And my friend. You're married to the Doctor, who never deserved you but you never did listen to me. You shot me once but I got over it… what is happening?"

Danni just let out a little sob as she closed the gap, pulling River into a hug. River immediately wrapped her up in her arms, startled and more than a little worried. "It's okay," she replied. "Honestly, you were always so dramatic."

Danni laughed and cried harder at the mention of their shared past. River didn't let her go, though, enjoying having her in her arms for a time.

"I'm guessing you answered correctly?" the Doctor called and River looked over at the TARDIS. He was stood in the doorway watching the pair.

"Answered what correctly?" she replied.

He nodded into the TARDIS. "You should join us. Danielle, you might want to let her go."

Danni shook her head, but did as he said, letting the woman go. She rushed over to her husband's side, her eyes glittering with tears as she smiled up at him. "She remembers me!" she exclaimed. He nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder and gently pushing her in.

"I know, I heard," he replied lightly. "Go on, in you get."

She nodded and dashed in, practically bouncing as the Doctor and River entered at a much more leisurely pace.

"Do either of you want to explain what is going on?" the archaeologist asked. "Not that I'm not pleased that you seem happy to see me, Danni-Girl."

Danni nodded. "You're our control River," she replied happily. "We've been looking all over for you."

"Control River?"

"Danielle is being slowly erased from time," the Doctor explained as he sent them into the vortex once again. "Very slowly. Too slowly, in fact. If it was going to happen, she should have been gone but she is not. She's still very much here." He glanced over at his wife, who knew those words were for her and not for her mother. She shot him a smile in return. "But someone is playing with my timeline, and because we all know how much of her existence rides on it, something is slowly giving."

"And it's erasing her from history?" River finished for them. "Well? Who is it and how do we stop them?"

"We don't know," the Doctor replied. "We don't know who, and we don't know when and we don't know how. All we know is that the last seven Rivers we have visited have had no idea who she is." The Doctor leant on the console. "Do you remember going to see the 700th anniversary showing of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone?" River nodded. "Do you remember when we came to see you afterwards?"

"It was a couple of weeks later," River replied. "We went to see Eurovision."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, not then," he corrected. "Straight afterwards. This me, and this Danielle came to see you. Do you remember that?"

"No, not at all," River replied.

"Then there's two separate timelines working together," Danni said, stepping towards. "One where everything is normal, and one where…"

The Doctor felt it again. It tore at his hearts and, to his side, River gasped as well. Danielle was gone again, nothing but an empty space where she was stood. He turned to River, eyes blazing.

"What's her name?" he demanded.

"Where did she go?" River asked in reply and he narrowed his eyes, letting his urgency come through.

"What's her name?" he demanded again.

River realised what he was doing. He was making sure that she could remember Danni. "Danielle Fielding."

He nodded. "Who is she to you?"

"She's my daughter."

"When was she conceived?"

"On the night of my graduation," River replied, cocking her eyebrow slightly. In any other situation she would have asked if he'd wanted the gory details, but she just made sure he knew that she was holding it back.

"Who's her father?"

"Jack Harkness."

He sighed, obviously pleased with her answers even though it still didn't mean that she was back. "Where did she go?" River asked again, this time quieter, trying to keep calm.

"She's been erased from time," he explained. "She'll reappear at some point, but I don't know when and no time at all will have passed for her."

He pointed at River. "You can't leave the TARDIS," he suddenly declared. "The TARDIS can help preserve your memories for as long as possible, but you are the first River with any memory of her."

"If I get reintroduced into the timeline I may forget her as well," River agreed, feeling slightly horrified at the idea of her losing her best friend and her daughter in one swoop. "You have no idea when she will return?"

"Last time it was three days," he told her, keeping the nature of their activities at the time to himself. "Sometimes it's seconds. We don't know."

"So, we just have to wait?" River exclaimed, but for once her anger wasn't at the man in front of her. Even she could see the way he'd reacted to Danni disappearing, and to save her daughter arguing with the only person who could potentially help wasn't the way to go.

The Doctor nodded. "It's terribly frustrating," he admitted, leaning back against the console once again from his straightened position. He still needed more information. Going back and trying to save her was only good if he knew the point she was removed from time. She never existed, but when did the change happen?

"Tell me about your graduation," he said to River, who frowned.

"I don't think I can," she replied slowly. "It's not happened for you yet."

"Just don't tell me when it is for me," he replied. "Tell me what happened."

She shrugged. "Nothing, really. Danni convinced you to come and watch, then afterwards…" she frowned to herself. "No, wait, that's not right."

He shot off the console, moving closer and watching her with those hawk eyes that she teased him about. "What's changed?" he asked.

River was still frowning, obviously lost in her search of her memories. "You came to see me, but you didn't," she told him. "I remember it both ways." She jolted slightly, looking up at him and looking horrified. "I remember looking out and wondering if you were going to turn up," she said. "Not Danni, just you. I…" she pulled a face. "I _wanted_ you to be there. What's that all about?"

The Doctor nodded in agreement at her disgust. "The Rivers before you kept kissing me," he explained. "Danielle said that in her other universe, we were married. That we were… _together_."

Both of them looked at each other, neither of them particularly happy at that news. "That explains why it was such a worry for her. Well, thank the universe for small miracles," River murmured. "The point is that I'm starting to gain the memories of two different timelines, even if I remember the original. The change is already becoming permanent."

"But she doesn't exist at the moment," the Doctor replied. "The true test will be when she comes back." He set off towards the hallway. "Wait here for her. Hopefully she won't be too long."

"Where are you going?" she called after him, but he had already disappeared. She grumbled to herself. "Arse."

What exactly was she supposed to do? It was obvious that Danni was missing from her life, even if she still had the memory of her in her life. There had to be something that she could do to help.

But there really wasn't, so she slowly walked up to the console, grabbing the monitor and pulled it towards her. "Show me Danni Fielding," she murmured to herself, using the keyboard she'd pulled the monitor to. "Come on, you know you can find her."

The symbols spun around, but nothing came up. No pictures, no information and River smacked the monitor. "Come on, you stupid box. I know you know who she is. Show me."

The TARDIS normally cooperated with her fully and happily, and usually River had nothing but patience for the box. She knew the Doctor didn't fly her properly and that Danni had zero experience doing so either, so River was certain the box enjoyed having her on board to treat her right.

But, still, nothing showed up. River sighed heavily and flopped into the pilot seat, crossing her arms. She felt so useless just sat there waiting, although what exactly could she do about it? Danni had saved her when she was a child although she wasn't sure what from and then she'd helped her show her parents that she was actually their daughter. She really was her best friend, but all she could do was wait.

~0~0~0~

"…everything is…"

River jumped out of her thoughts as Danni suddenly, and with no warning, appeared in front of her. She'd been trying to recall every memory she could about her daughter in the hopes that she could pinpoint the ones where it had changed. It had become obvious that she was starting to gain two different sets of memories; one with her and one without.

The TARDIS monitor sparked into life, displaying a picture of the blonde in front of her along with details that scrolled next to it.

Danni looked around, trailing off her sentence as she realised that the Doctor was nowhere to be seen and River had moved to the chair. Her hearts clenched painfully in panic and she shook her head. "No, not again."

River quickly jumped off the chair, rushing over to pull her in for a hug. She never did like to baby Danni, but even she knew that now wasn't the time to make her feel worse about being upset. She deserved to be.

"You're okay," River promised. "You're back, you're okay."

"Was I- Was I gone long?" she sobbed, shaking in her mother's arms.

"Only about 20 minutes," she reassured her. "The Doctor went into the TARDIS, but I don't know what for. He'll be here any minute."

Even now they both could hear his footsteps echoing, and Danni broke out of River's arms to rush over to him for comfort. But she was stopped by the sight of him holding bundles of messy paper, eyes wide and a grin on his face.

"What's that?" Danni asked him.

"I'm an idiot," he replied joyfully. "A complete fool. I don't know why I didn't see it before," he rushed over. "It's in the photographs!"

"Photo- are those my pictures?" she asked as he crouched on the floor and dumped the photographs down. Danni could already see the images of all of their friends staring up at them.

"Yes," he replied, looking up at her. "I'm going to fix this," he promised. "I'm going to make sure none of this happens again. These are the key!"

"How?"

"Because they exist because you do," he replied. "Not one of these would be here if you weren't here to take them, and they still existed when you didn't. Which means that the TARDIS is working very hard to keep them in place."

"When I tried to bring up information about you, the TARDIS couldn't find anything," River added. "If she's preserving these, it must be for a reason."

The Doctor nodded, already sorting through. "We need to find the earliest one," he said. "The earliest photo where you are still in it."

Danni crouched on the floor next to him. "Why?"

He smiled at her. "Because that's the Doctor where everything changed. If we find him, we will find out what the hell is going on."

 _~0~0~0~_

"You know," Danni started and the other two looked up at her. "There's no pictures of Rose in here."

Danni had a _lot_ of photographs. The Doctor had gone out and come back with even more the ones that didn't make it onto the wall of her bedroom and it became apparent that a strategy was in order. So they'd started to sort into companions in the hope that something would become apparent.

"Maybe we just haven't found any yet?" River reasoned. "I mean, this is an obscene about of pictures. I'm not sure when you had the time to take them all."

"There's always time to take a picture," Danni replied matter-of-factly. "And you never know if you'll want a different one, so I like to take a few. I had loads of Rose, we should have found at least one by now."

"So, we know that it's already changing your timeline too?" River said to the Doctor. "Do you have memories of Danni with Rose?"

"Yes, but I'm the end point," he retorted. "Anyone after me is going to have sorted this out or…"

"Or would have already forgotten me," Danni finished softly. He shot her an apologetic look and she shrugged. "So we know that it's becoming more permanent, and that at least Nine and part of Ten do not know who I am."

The Doctor jumped up. "We should test it," he declared. "River, you keep sorting, see if we come to another pattern."

"Oh great," she grumbled. "Continuing the trip down memory lane."

The Doctor held his hand up and helped Danni off the floor. "There's some of me and Mels in there somewhere," she said pointedly to the bushy-haired woman. "Remember when we followed Rory to work?"

River's eyes did light up slightly, even though she held the rest of her face neutral to hide it. "Well, I guess it won't be all bad," she replied, turning to the pile once again. "It's not like I can go with you anyway."

"What are we going to do?" Danni asked the Doctor as he headed to the console. "Are we just going to drop in on him and ask?"

 _~0~0~0~_

The Tenth Doctor wasn't lost. He didn't _get_ lost. His companions got lost, not him. The marketplace was very large, it was easy to see _why_ they would maybe lose their bearing, but it definitely wasn't him.

Rose had to be somewhere. She wandered off on her own all of the time, but he always found her. They always found each other eventually, he would have just preferred to find her sooner rather than later.

He quickly apologised as he bumped into someone, turning on his heel so he could address them properly. He smiled, feeling slightly guiltier but almost happier to see that they had bright ginger hair. He always wanted to be ginger.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't paying attention at all to where I was going."

She smiled at him, a bright grin that turned slightly playful as she looked him over. "That's alright," she replied. "Feel free to bump into me anytime."

He chuckled, running his hand through his hair. It was always nice to get the attention of someone like he obviously had with the very attractive young lady. Nothing wrong with padding out the ego a little bit. "I'll bear that in mind," he replied happily before shoving his hand out to her, remembering his manners. "I'm the Doctor, by the way."

"Doctor?" she repeated just as he expected her to. "Doctor who?"

He couldn't help the wolfish grin. "Oh, just… just the Doctor."

"Well," she drawled, " _Doctor_. I'm Danni. It's very nice to meet you." Her brows furrowed and he frowned at the concentration that appeared on her face. "Wait, let me just…" she waved her hand over him. "You're looking for someone," she declared and his brows furrowed. "A blonde girl. A girl who is very far from home. In jeans and a hoodie. And a flower... a lily? No. Rose."

He suddenly felt the humour fall away and he took a step closer, looking at her with suspiciously. "How did you know that?" he asked lowly.

"Because the story of you life is painted in the winds of time," she said ominously before her grin spread. "Or I was approached by a lovely South Londoner who was looking for her devilishly handsome friend in a blue suit and overcoat, with messy brown hair."

He felt himself relax when he realised that she had well and truly played him. "Did… Did she say that?"

Danni shrugged, still looking smug. "Well, I may have added the 'devilishly handsome' part, but she was definitely looking for you. Over that way," she pointed towards a shoe shop. "Seems a bit miffed she couldn't find you. Better hurry along."

"Yes, I guess I better…" he started before looking at her suspiciously. "Devilishly handsome?" he repeated, obviously unable to let it slide. She nodded.

"What can I say? I call it like I see it," she retorted and he grinned at her.

"Well…" he drawled and she motioned over to the shoe shop.

"Maybe I'll see you around, though?" she asked and he nodded eagerly.

"Definitely," he promised, although she knew that he never went back on himself. "Definitely see you around, Danni."

She watched him walk off after Rose with a smile on her face that slowly faded the farther he walked away. When he dipped into the shop she turned and headed away from him and into a little alleyway where the TARDIS was hidden.

The door opened before she made it to the box, and she stepped inside to see both the Doctor and River look over at her. "I hate this thing," she told them both bluntly, pulling the small black box off the waistband of her trousers.

"You always said you missed your first body," the Doctor pointed out as she shimmered back into her blonde self.

"I did… I mean, I do," she stuttered slightly. "I just didn't think that I'd have it back while working out if my husband knew who I was."

"Did he?" the Doctor asked and she shook her head.

"He was lovely to me. Flirted a bit, didn't call me a stupid little girl. It's safe to say that he had no idea who I was," she confirmed. "Now what?"

"Now we know it's eating into my time line as well," he reasoned. "What we need is to find out when it stops. We need to find out the first Doctor who remembers you, maybe we can correlate that with River."

Danni frowned. "Correlate?"

"He means see if we're at the same point in time," River explained for him. "I suspect that the idea is that we will be at the same point in our timelines together."

"Which is very hard to measure when you constantly meet out of order," the Doctor continued, a bite to his tone as if it were her fault. "We don't even meet backward to front. We're all over the spot. Sometimes it's linear, sometimes it's not."

"But we know the Doctor who took her out," Danni reasoned. "Surely it's him we're looking for."

"I'm already gaining two sets of memories. We need the Doctor _after_ me," River said.

"Alright, well, where did we take her next?" Danni asked, walking up to the Doctor's side. He handed her their TARDIS diary but neither of them said it out loud. It wasn't anything special, just a trip on a space cruise, but they couldn't spoil it for River.

"Alright, give me a pen," Danni demanded, holding her hand out to the Doctor expectantly. He frowned but did as she said.

"What are you doing?" River asked as she sat down on the floor.

"The photos are a good indication, but I can narrow it down further," Danni replied, a thoughtful frown on her face. "He never picks you up without me, and I remember both of these dates. They're both when I was jumping. I think I can remember the Doctors in between them."

"The ones you jumped to?" River asked and she nodded. River looked up at the Doctor. "That might work," she told him. "If she's being erased, it makes more sense that the memories are being removed through her timeline rather than your own. It's just more permanent for us both the farther away from the change we are."

"There's a Doctor in here somewhere that lines up with you," Danni replied. "The next Doctor, or the one afterwards. We get to him and we can work out where whoever is messing around has uprooted time."

The Doctor watched her scribbling down notes, trying to jolt her own memory. He walked over and knelt next to her, putting a hand on her head to pull her closer. He placed a kiss on her hair. "You can do it, my Pet," he encouraged lowly. He couldn't lose her.

 _~0~0~0~_

 _Sorry for the long wait between updates, but as I'm sure that most if not all of you came from the main series you're going to know why :D :D_

 _Hopefully I won't be as bad next time around. Thanks for all the support/reviews xxx_


	6. Chapter 5

Going back over her life was something Danni did like to do on occasion. Her memories were incredibly precious to her. But, usually, it was in a much more relaxed setting. She could sit down with a cup of tea, pop a movie on and watch it while reminiscing.

Going over and over her memories trying to pinpoint the time someone was trying to alter her husband's timeline and inadvertently erasing her from time wasn't quite as pleasant. She wanted to be able to enjoy the memories, not have to dismiss them for whatever reason the Doctor, River or herself came up with.

"After that you weren't there for four years," the Doctor told her factually. "I don't think we saw River during that time."

Danni frowned to herself. "Four years?" she repeated. "I don't remember it being that long."

He shot her a look from his seat on the floor. "Trust me, it was that long," he retorted. "Did we go after that?"

Danni shrugged, chucking the pad of paper on the floor. "I have no idea," she snapped in frustration. "It's been hundreds of years, and my life wasn't in order to begin with! How the hell am I supposed to remember it?"

The Doctor quickly climbed up off the floor, walking over to his wife and held his hand out to her. She looked at him with a face full of annoyance, but then she took it and he helped her off the chair. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Getting upset is not going to help," he pointed out. "Maybe you should take a break? Have one of those showers you love so much while River continues to sort through the photos?"

River raised her head, pulling a face behind his back. "Sure, leave me to do the dogs work," she declared loudly.

Danni shook her head. "What? Go have a shower so I can just be ripped out of time all by myself?" she countered. "If I'm going to be erased from history..."

"You're not going to be erased!" the Doctor protested.

" _If_ ," she reiterated, "then I don't want the last thing I see to be a wet, tiled wall." She sighed, breaking out of his grasp. "I don't want..."

He caught her hands in his. "I understand," he promised. "I do. And you're not going to be erased. You've got both me and your mother on your side. We'll figure out what, exactly, whoever is fiddling with my time line is trying to achieve and we will sort it."

She nodded, taking a deep breath to try and calm herself down. "I'm going to..." she nodded to the ground. "Maybe some of those will jog my memory better."

He placed a hand on the small of her back, encouragingly nudging her over to River. "I'm going to tinker with the psychic interface some more," he replied. "See if we can home in on any discrepancies."

She sat across from River, looking at all the little piles of photographs she had made. Each one for a different companion, with Amy and Rory's much more organised just because she'd heard the stories more than enough. Despite her annoyed attitude, she really was putting her all into helping them at least narrow down a time.

"Thank you," Danni told her sincerely and the bushy-haired woman looked up in surprise. "You really didn't need to do this, but I'm glad you're here."

"Of course I did," River retorted, looking at the small pile in her hand and separating them accordingly. She wasn't sure if sorting the photos out would really be any help, but as she'd offered all the memories she had – which apparently had not been as much as they'd all hoped – then this was all she could do. "Who else was going to help? Your father?"

"Hey," Danni scolded, picking up some photos herself. "Jack has been very helpful so far. The Face of Boe was the one who sent us to you in the first place."

"Of course he was. Sending you to me when he could be helping you himself."

"He's a head in a jar," Danni retorted. "What could he do, exactly?"

"He can feel changes in time," River pointed out. "It's one of his… I dunno, super power or something, you told me. Surely he could pinpoint where this was happening."

"Leave Jack alone," Danni demanded, although she did have a point. "He said he wasn't sure what was happening. He said you could help."

"And I am helping," River replied, purposefully placing a picture of Martha on a pile of many. "I think he just got too used to outsourcing."

Danni couldn't help but giggle at that. "He is a real business man," she agreed. "Well, business head, I guess. They keep trying to get us to sign non disclosure agreements."

River snorted. "That's their own fault," she replied. "Have you ever signed one?"

"Of course not," Danni replied, acting shocked that she would even think it. "I think he just does it to the newbies. Not everyone asks."

The Doctor smiled to himself as he listened to his wife natter on with her mother. Truthfully there wasn't much else that he could do with the interface. Everytime he felt he had a hold of the time and place their culprit was in, it would slip away. They seemed to be all over the spot, he didn't understand it.

He'd just wanted to relax her. If he couldn't save her – a thought which brought a lump to his throat and an almost overwhelming urge to hold her close – then he didn't want her being erased while being worried. He wanted her happy. He wanted to remember her happy.

And if that meant a bit of banter between her and River, well, he could handle that.

Danni frowned as she reached over, placing a picture of Martha with the rest of the pictures of Martha. They weren't coming across any other discrepancies with the pictures beyond the missing Rose ones. Martha, Donna, Amy and Rory, Clara, they all seemed to be in place. All in all the Doctor's timeline seemed pretty much in tact. So maybe they were looking at the wrong thing. Maybe the companions weren't the way to go.

River looked to her daughter, who seemingly had frozen in thought, her hand hovering as she forgot the task she had begun. "Danni?" she asked and the Doctor looked over at her, his own brows furrowing. "What is it?"

"Have you been separating the pictures of you from here?" Danni asked in return and River nodded, motioning to a pile by her side.

"I was going to steal a couple for myself," she admitted boldly. "Why?"

"What about Jack?"

"What about him?" River shot back.

"His pictures. Where are his pictures?" she clarified and River shrugged.

"I dunno," she replied. "I didn't think he was particularly important."

Of course she didn't. Danni immediately placed the picture she had in hand onto the pile before using both of her hands to spread it out wide, scattering the photos everywhere.

"What are you doing?" River exclaimed as Danni messed up all her work. She wasn't too bothered about the photos themselves, but she had just spent ages sorting them out.

"Where's Jack?" Danni counted. "Jack should be in here. Where is he?" She moved onto the Amy and Rory pile, spreading them out and flicking them behind her.

"Who cares?" River countered and Danni stopped her search to look at her.

"Look at them," she replied. "The only thing that has changed in all of them is the person taking them. I'm the only thing that changes… I mean, look at..." She picked up a picture of Martha. It was one of her in snow. "Look at this. This is when we went skating, right at the start when I was still getting used to jumping about. This was a story that I heard about in my old universe, when I wasn't there. And… And this one," she picked up one of Donna. "This is one Donna took _for_ me, when I wasn't there. This would have happened regardless. Apart from me taking the picture, these events will still have happened."

The Doctor walked over, leaning against the side of the console as she turned to River. "When I disappeared, you remembered me, didn't you?" she asked her mother, who nodded. "You have memories of me in place, like I'd never left, except in one place."

"At my graduation," River confirmed before her brows furrowed. "What are you suggesting, exactly?"

"We've been looking all over the Doctor's time line trying to find what is wrong," Danni explained. "But nothing is wrong." She looked up at her husband. "Your time line is fine. Everything that was supposed to happen is still happening. Anything that changes with me not being there is a by product, not causation."

"You don't think they're messing around with my time line?" he asked her and she nodded. "But it's directly affecting my life. You're disappearing, which means that I never introduce you to anyone. You're not there to change the events because something in my time line is changing."

"Where's Jack?" she countered. "He should be somewhere. There aren't any pictures of him."

"There wasn't any pictures of Rose," he pointed out. "It just means that the changes are becoming more permanent and we have to fix it."

River shook her head. "No, there's no pictures of Rose because she wasn't there to take them. But she _was_ there for these," she explained, going through her own pile of photos quickly.

"The thing that changes in these pictures isn't the time or the place, it's the people missing," Danni told her husband. "I'm behind the camera, but Jack's missing completely. What if it's Jack? What if he's sent us to River because he can't interfere in his own time line?"

"If he's being killed before you were born then that would explain your disappearences," the Doctor said. "The longer it takes for him to get back on track, the longer you're gone for. But for what purpose? There's better ways of getting my attention."

She looked down at the pictures that were scattered across the floor. "Theta," she started slowly. "They're not trying to rewrite your timeline." She picked up a picture of Amy and Rory. Her grandparents. Her father. Her mother's graduation. She looked back up at her husband. "It's me," she breathed. "They're trying to erase _me_."

 _~0~0~0~_

It was with a lot of pain and a deep breath that Jack Harkness came back to life. Every time it happened it was agony, but every time he got up and carried on because if he'd been killed, it was normally for a reason. He'd learnt long ago that he may not always come back completely orientated so he knew that his first task was to get the hell out of any place where he'd woken up in.

This time, though, there was something rather large driving him to get up and go. Whoever had put him in the room he'd woken up in was very apologetic for killing him, but that it was for 'the greater good'. To hurt _his_ daughter. To stop her from being born. By killing him they'd stop her from being conceived and she'd flit out of existence. He couldn't let that happen.

He sat up on the bed they'd laid him out on and was rather pleased to find that they'd actually brought him into a hospital. The times between his resurrections could vary so he really had no idea how long he'd been out, but it was long enough for them to think that they'd actually managed to keep him dead.

He chuckled to himself and hopped off the bed, grabbing the plastic bag of his belongings from the metal table he was by. They'd taken his gun, unfortunately, but luckily he'd not been wearing his manipulator so it hadn't fallen into the wrong hands.

He slipped on his jacket and moved to the door, taking his time to check the coast was clear before heading out and hopefully away. Chances were that the people who wanted Danni gone were already aware that their plan didn't work. He needed to get home and contact her, and fast.

There was a gunshot and he turned around just in time for it to enter through his forehead, splattering blood and flesh on the wall behind him. Jack Harkness dropped to the floor, dead once again.


	7. Chapter 6

"That's ridiculous!" the Doctor raged, throwing his hands up. "Who could possibly want to erase you? What have you done that would make them want to?"

Danni shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe it's something I've not done yet. I've got a lot more lives to live than I have lived, after all."

He shook his head. "I refuse to accept that," he snapped. "You're too good to bring someone's wrath like that. You're the one people like, I'm the one who solves their problems."

Danni narrowed her eyes slightly. She wasn't sure why he was being so defensive over it, but there was absolutely no need to start insulting her. "Hey! I solve things too, you know?" she retorted. "I can get enemies just as much as you can."

"That's not something to brag about," he countered. "You don't have enemies. It's absurd."

"He does have a point, though," River spoke up, sounding rather reluctant to agree with him. "You rarely go anywhere without him, and he's the one that upset people more."

"I'm not a novice at this, you know?" she snapped at the pair. "I know what I'm talking about and it's not the Doctor's timeline that is changing, it's _mine_. Someone is trying to stop Jack getting to your graduation to stop me being born and we need to find them before they bloody succeed."

"Alright, alright," River replied, trying to placate her and not doing a particularly good job about it. Danni looked ready to rant and rave, which was a hard thing to bring about from her. Another reason why her suggestion didn't sit well with either of them. "What do you suggest, then?"

"Finding Jack, obviously," Danni replied simply. "Someone is hurting him and we need to stop them."

"And how do you suggest we do that, then?" the Doctor snapped. "We don't know where he is, or when he is, and we don't even know if you're even right!"

Danni frowned, looking up at him. "We can use the TARDIS," she said. "That's how we normally do it, isn't it?" She pushed herself up off the floor, looking her husband over with a critical eye that came with knowing him for so long. He was adgitated, sure, but it wasn't from what was happening. Her suggestion shouldn't have brought about this much anger. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he retorted. "Apart from someone messing around with at least one of our time lines, everything is pretty much normal, isn't it?" He sounded a little annoyed that she'd even asked, but she saw his eyes dart to River just for a moment.

She reached out, grabbing his hand. "Come with me," she commanded with no room for argument. She started to walk him towards the hallway. "River, would you mind trying to find the right Jack for us?"

River nodded, glad to be doing anything but sorting photos. "Of course, sweetie."

"Thanks."

Danni took him into the hallway, then down a bit as well until she knew that River wouldn't be able to hear them. He didn't protest but she could tell he wasn't happy to be torn away without much choice from the console room.

She didn't really care. "What's wrong?" she asked him again.

His eyebrows raised in his disbelief. "My wife is being erased from history," he hissed. "I'm sorry I'm not taking that in my stride."

"Not that," she retorted. "Of course you're going to be worried about that! I am, and I'm the one being erased! I mean you shooting down my every idea. You've not done that for years. What's wrong?"

He glared down at her like he was about to rant at her, but she was always the one person who wasn't scared of him and stared back expectantly, waiting for him to answer her question.

"Why would someone want to erase you?" he bit out. "I don't understand, how could you possibly upset anyone?"

She blinked, confused at his question as she worked out what he was saying. A small smile started to spread on her face. "You're upset because someone might not like me, aren't you?" she asked.

"It's not that," he replied firmly before hesitating slightly. "Well, it's not _just_ that..."

She was incredibly touched. This was something that seemed so very Twelve. He was always confused about how no one seemed to see her when he was around being his clever self, or how people dismissed her. It made sense that he couldn't understand why someone wouldn't see her as invaluable as he did.

She reached out and took both of his hands in hers. "If we don't follow this train of thought and I'm right, not only do I get erased from time, but Jack suffers as well," she said as gently as she could. "Someone _is_ trying to erase me. We have to stop them before it becomes permanent."

He didn't reply straight away. "Perhaps we should reconsider you being the polite one," he muttered and she giggled slightly before pulling him in for a hug. He held her tightly, hiding his face in her hair and she snuggled into his chest.

"We'll work it out," she promised before pulling back. "Hopefully pretty soon. River actually knows how to fly the TARDIS."

"Oi," he exclaimed as they started to walk back to the console room. "I can fly the TARDIS just fine. I could find Jack in the blink of an eye if I wanted to."

"Oh, I see, you just don't want to," she surmised, sticking her tongue out at him as he shot her a look. That was better. He seemed a lot happier, which was good. She didn't expect nor want him to be pleased she was being erased, but there was a part of her that was rather happy that he was worried, even though the conflicting feeling just wanted him to be happy all of the time.

"Have you two stopped rowing?" River asked.

"Not rowing – talking," Danni corrected. "Found a Jack?"

"I think so," she replied. "It's roughly the same time as my graduation, just a couple of weeks before actually. Quite far away from the university, though."

Danni shrugged. "Doesn't matter where it is," she reasoned. "As long as we save him."

 _~0~0~0~_

Jack had been strung up more times than he would like to count. They seemed to like to have him hanging from the roof, and while most of the time he was much the willing participant in scenarios such as that, sometimes he really wasn't. Those times still happened much too often, and no matter how often they came, he still felt the panic when he woke up.

The room was dark, but not bare. In fact, if he wasn't mistaken, he was back in the hospital room he had originally woken up in. Then he'd been shot, hadn't he? Damn, that was annoying.

He shook his wrists to test the strength of his restraints and found them probably just too strong for him to break out of straight away, but he could wear the hold on the ceiling down. Honestly, it was something when he would call back to the Master's reign over Earth for a standard of quality chains. He needed better enemies.

Speaking of… He still had no idea who was keeping him trapped, or why they wanted Danni to disappear from the universe. Not that motivation mattered under this circumstance, but it was always good to know all the information and he barely had any at all.

The door to the room opened and a man stepped in. He didn't look like the type of man who would bother himself with a man being strung up in a hospital room, but he definitely looked like the type of man who would order such a thing. He obviously took pride in his appearance, with not a hair out a place and a very expensive looking suit on. He definitely wasn't the guy who had originally killed him. Must be the boss.

"Nice to see you awake, Captain," he greeted as if he really was just visiting Jack in the hospital. "We were getting worried. Not that we really need to, right? You'll always wake up."

"I wouldn't count on that," Jack retorted, recalling a time from his past long ago when his resurrections weren't quite so reliable. "I'm guessing it was your goon who got that lucky shot?"

"Unfortunately, yes," the man confirmed. "I do apologise for that, but 'needs must' and all that." He nodded to the chains that held Jack up. "I'm afraid that's why you've been offered less that top notch treatment. Can't have you running away just yet."

"I've had worse," Jack brushed off. "What do you want with Danni?"

The man chuckled. "Straight down to business, Captain? I can see where she gets that from."

"So you've met her before?" Jack asked. "Or are you just working off hearsay?"

"No, we've met," the man agreed. "It was that meeting that has led to your rather unfortunate circumstances now."

"Didn't go too well, then? What, did she shoot you down or something? I wouldn't worry about it too much, we've been flirting for centuries, it's not personal."

If the man was fazed by him talking about flirting with his own daughter, he didn't show it. "No, no, no. Nothing like that. Everyone knows how loyal she is to the Doctor. I wouldn't dream of breaking up a marriage."

"Just erasing one half from history?" Jack shot back.

The man grimaced slightly. "Ah, you _have_ got me there," he replied. "Danielle Fielding is a menace. Do you realise just what the universe has to suffer through just because she exists? The many planets the Doctor has left in his wake just because she was missing? It's becoming quite the problem."

"He's always come on a little strong, I'll give you that," Jack agreed. "Put him in a time out. Erasing his wife seems a little extreme."

"It's because of his wife that we're in the mess," the man countered. "His search across the universe has left people in his wake. Where he used to help, he now just walks away. And Danielle? Well," he chuckled, "everyone has heard stories of the Time Child. I don't need to go into details, do I?"

"Yes, and they are just stories," Jack told him firmly. The man shot him a look.

"I have personally been through one of her stories," he explained shortly. "I was there when she was trying to make some noise. I can tell you, they are more than stories. They make each other worse, but the Doctor is an asset, she is just a monster."

That seemed to be the end of the conversation and Jack really didn't want to continue talking to a man who would insult his daughter so freely.

"Now, I do apologise for the lack of comfort, but it won't be for too long," the man told him. "We'll let you go soon enough."

Jack frowned to himself. "You're just going to leave me here?"

"Of course," the man replied. "Did you think I was just going to keep killing you?"

"You wouldn't be the first," Jack pointed out.

"There really is no need to kill you," the man explained. "Once what we need starts affecting the universe, you will be let go. That is, of course, as long as you don't keep trying to escape." He nodded his head. "Captain."

Jack watched him walk out, listening to the door lock behind him. He struggled at his chains again for a moment before relaxing back the best he could. He needed to work out a plan before he even attempted to get free, and wasting energy would just be a hindrance.

He looked around the room but nothing immediately stood out to him. This was going to take a while. Perhaps he could break his wrist? That was a very viable, if unfavourable, option he had.

He looked at the door again. He needed to wait, though. Trying to escape now would just lead to his next death quicker. He had to bide his time. And work out exactly what Danni had done to anger these people so much.

And kill them all for trying to hurt her.


	8. Chapter 7

The Doctor would not, under any circumstances, let Danni set out of the TARDIS first. He pretended that he wasn't as overbearingly protective as his predecessor but he didn't fool anyone, especially Danni. He felt like he had good reason to be concerned, though, and so he stepped out into the street first to check out the area.

It was dark outside, and pale street lights ensured that everything looked a little rundown. There were no people, which both relieved him and made him suspicious. It was very rare for somewhere to be this completely deserted.

He held the door opened for his wife and, after a moment, she stepped out. He watched the confusion immediately change her facial expression. "Are we sure this is right?"

River appeared at the door. "It's just night," she replied. "You know it's right because I flew us here."

The Doctor mocked her. Silently, just because he didn't want to upset Danni anymore. "What are we looking for?"

"Well, he's about six foot, has a trench coat fetish…"

"I _meant_ where do we think he is," the Doctor interrupted her before she could irate him even more. "Do you know the building? The street? The postcode, perhaps? Are we on the right planet?"

"Doctor," Danni said in warning before turning to River. "I've got the ear piece, so you two don't have to talk. Do you have any idea where we have to head?"

"According to the TARDIS he's about half a mile down the street from here," she explained in a much more civil tone. "Just turn right and follow the road, but I can't give you a building."

"Alright. Stay in the TARDIS and we'll keep you updated," Danni told her. "We don't need you disappearing from history. One of us is _quite_ enough."

" _Don't joke about that_ ," both the Doctor and River scolded her at once.

"Don't take that tone with me," Danni replied. "I can joke about it if I want to." She was allowed to. She was the one disappearing, after all. She met the Doctor's eyes before nodding down the street. "Come on." As they headed away from River, she looked over the shoulder. "Don't leave the TARDIS!"

"Yes mother!"

The rest of the street didn't look any more appealing than where they'd landed. There were no lights in any of the windows, and everything looked rather run down. Danni immediately moved a little closer to her husband, reaching out to take his hand.

"Are we sure this place isn't completely deserted?" she asked him.

"It would be a good place to hide a overexuberant ex-Time Agent," he reasoned. "There's almost no noise at all. It'd be the last place I'd look for him. There's no wild parties and questionable people hooking up with other questionable people."

Danni looked up at him. "'Hooking up'?" she repeated, amused. "Trying to be down with the kids now, Doctor?"

"Oi, I can still be 'hip' when I want to be," he protested. "I just don't want it. Have you seen it? Most times 'hip' just seems to be exhausting."

Danni knew exactly what he was doing. He was a self-proclaimed hater of 'banter', so this was all for her benefit. He was trying to keep her calm instead of panicking about what was happening to Jack and, in turn, what was happening to her. The last thing he needed was to have to spend time calming her down when their main goal was saving Jack, which in turn would save her.

"These people have a problem with me, right," she started and the Doctor sighed heavily. However, he knew better than to stop her train of thought. "But then, why go for Jack? Surely if they know about me then they know that he's, you know, immortal?"

"I would suspect so, yes," he replied.

"Well, you know, then they must know he's immortal," she explained. "As in 'he's always going to come back from the dead'. That's why I'm just flitting between existing and, well… not."

"I'm unsure of your point," he told her, a little short. He wasn't too bothered about the motives behind their attempt to get rid of his wife, he just wanted to stop it.

"Well, my point is, why Jack?" she asked. "Why would they go for the ultra unkillable parent? Not-Not that I want them going after River, or anyone really, in fact I'd rather they'd just left my time line alone and maybe, perhaps, try and stop me doing whatever has pissed them off…" The Doctor shot her a look and she caught herself in her ramble. "Anyway. What I mean is, why would they not go for River? Even if they took her when she was still Mels, that's only at most twelve times they'd have to kill her. Not that I'm advocating killing _anyone_ , but if I was some evil mastermind that's what I'd do."

"You're mistaking these people for people with actual brains," he pointed out. He couldn't help but look around, taking in the fact that the street seemed unnaturally quiet. They'd obviously landed in a city and it was extremely unlikely for somewhere with this kind of infrastructure to be so… silent. "You're clever, they're not. That's why they're on this ridiculous mission."

His eyes caught sight of a security camera above the heads pointing straight at them. Not at the street, or the ground, he could have sworn it was pointed directly at him and his wife. He pulled her to a stop, looking around for more cameras, which confirmed his suspicions. Every camera around them had turned and was pointing straight at them.

"Somebody's watching us," he told her lowly. Danni's grip on his hand tightened and her gaze followed his to the cameras.

"Have we already stumbled onto somewhere we're not allowed?" she asked. "That's quick, even for us. What do we do?"

He wasn't too sure, to be honest. If the people that had been foolish enough to take Jack were in control of those cameras, they probably were already too late to hide away. The buildings, whilst looking rundown, also looked like they were locked down for the night.

He'd not really thought this through. A lot of his brain power had been worrying on the fact that his wife could disappear at any moment during their current adventure. He'd been trying to plan for that eventuality, which wasn't exactly something that was easy to plan for. Especially considering there was no guarantee that she was pop back into his life again like she'd never been gone.

"Well, getting out of view is not an option," he told her. "So…"

He let go of her hand to hold both of his up, waving them in the direction of one of the cameras like he was eagerly greeting an old friend. "Hello up there!" he cried. "Big brother has got his eyes glued on us, hasn't he? Hope he doesn't mind the old sod he's managed to spot along with his wife."

Danni grabbed one of his arms, pulling it down to stop him waving manically. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Are you insane?"

"Whoever is looking through those cameras is looking at us," he replied. "Which means they must be looking _for_ us. Aren't you at least a little bit curious as to _why_? Perhaps they could lead us to your father, or to the people who are trying to kill him. Maybe they're just the local dog wardens."

"Or maybe they'll just kill us!"

"Perhaps," he agreed. "But listen." He held his hand to his ear and she focused on the sound he was trying to pick out from this distance. "Sirens. Someone is heading our way. Police, maybe, judging by the fact that it sounds like quite a slow siren and we have a bunch of security cameras pointing at us which would imply we've done something wrong."

"And your response was to bring them to us _sooner_?" she asked. "Shouldn't we be running to the TARDIS?"

"No, what I'm doing is giving the people who are actually watching us a chance to get to us before the police do," he explained. "This is a city with a fully working surveillance system. The buildings are rundown but there's street lighting. No one, and I mean no one is outside but us. Call me a pessimist but I'm going to call that a curfew."

"And we're two random people, who have appeared from nowhere outside in a city with a curfew," she finished. "Which explains the police coming for us."

"It does. But the bigger question is: 'why is there a curfew'?" he pointed out. "What's the first thing that comes to mind when there's a city-wide curfew?"

"The military?" she replied, which he couldn't deny was a fair assumption. The sirens were getting closer.

"Crime," he said. "Crime and not enough power to stop it. Which to me says that we should be visited any moment by the people who are _actually_ in charge."

"And you don't see the problem with that at all?" she asked him.

"Do you think Jack is in the possession of the police?" he countered. She sighed angrily – of course he just _had_ to make a lot of sense. She reached up, pressing her finger against her ear and turning on the communicator.

"River?" she asked.

" _Lost already?_ " River sounded rather amused. Danni didn't appreciate it.

"Not quite," she replied. "We're about to encounter some criminals. Fancy trying to get us some information on who they might be?"

" _Of course_ ," River replied. " _I'm going to guess it's the Doctor who's pulled their attention?"_

"Who else?" Danni replied. "Although, I'm sure they're just as happy to see me as him.

" _Be careful._ "

"Oh, don't worry about us. I'm sure they're going to be just the friendliest."

"You know, the sarcasm really wasn't necessary," the Doctor told her as she lowered her finger to end the call.

"Yes, it was," she replied simply as she spotted a group of figures appearing out of the shadows. "Oh look, we've appeared to have entered a 1930's crime movie."

She wasn't wrong. The group of five men were all in black suits and ties, but it was obvious the one the approached them first was in charge. They were incredibly well-groomed, the Doctor noted, but the others were built to do some serious damage should they have been instructed to. And the street lights really didn't help remove the rather intimidating atmosphere.

Danni frowned. Each of them had a black patch over their right eye. Her stomach lurched horribly. "Please don't tell me this is a Silent thing," she muttered to her husband. "I really don't want that again."

"I doubt it. I stopped them," he reminded her. Still, the sight also made him very uneasy. It wouldn't have been the first time they'd meddled with his wife's wellbeing. Still, he couldn't be too safe…

He stepped forward. "Hello boys," the Doctor greeted before they could get a word in. He wanted their attention on him and not on his wife should this go sour. It was definitely going to go sour. "Looks like the neighbourhood has gone downhill. Want me to take a look at that for you?"

Danni winced, but instead of the smack that she was expecting him to receive, the man in charge opened his arms with a grin on his face.

"Doctor, Danni, welcome!" he greeted. "I have to admit, I thought we would be seeing you during the day, but it's so lovely to finally see you." With an almost grand wave, he motioned to the side and towards one of the locked-down buildings. "If you would just follow me, Doctor, I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

Danni and the Doctor shared a look. Both of them had been doing this long enough to never trust a man with a charming smile whose words sounded inviting but his tone suggested that they very much didn't have a choice.

Running at this point probably wasn't going to go down too well, so the Doctor shot him his own fake smile. "We'll be glad to," he replied.

"Ah, ah," the man said, stopping the pair in his tracks. "I'm sorry, I understand where the confusion would have come from. Unfortunately we have other plans for you, Danni." He nodded towards her. "Take her."

Two of his henchmen stepped forward to grab her, but the Doctor used his grip on her to pull her back towards him. "No," he stated firmly, in warning. "You're trying to wipe her from existence. You are _not_ to lay a finger on her."

This didn't go down too well, and the henchmen all turned their attention to the Doctor and the threat that he was obviously issuing to their boss. The Doctor didn't care. He'd bested Robin Hood in a sword fight with a spoon. He'd stared down Daleks and Cybermen. A group of thugs wasn't going to scare him.

"Now, now, there's no need for that," the man replied, motioning his own little army back. "You're not really going to have much choice in the matter, anyway, I'm afraid."

"Oh?" the Doctor retorted. "You obviously have not done enough research about my feelings towards people _trying to kill_ my wife."

"There's quite the difference between dying and never being born," the man pointed out. He reached into his pocket, pulling out what looked like a walkie-talkie. "Kill him."

Danni had just stood back and let her husband talk. He could get a bit headstrong at times, but if anyone could talk them out of a situation it was her Theta. If she needed to step in, she would, but it was always best to let him run the show until he did something stupid.

It wasn't even him threatening the group of oversized goons that made her gasp in horror. If the man wanted the Doctor dead he wouldn't have called his henchman back. He was ordering someone to die elsewhere. He was ordering someone to kill Jack.

"Don't you dare!" she exclaimed, coming out from her safe place behind the Doctor. "You leave him alone!"

" _Done_ ," a crackly voice replied on the other end.

The man grinned happily. "Three, two, one."

The Doctor felt her ripped from time again like a punch to the gut. She disappeared as if she had never been there and the fury exploded in his chest. If he had been a man who carried a gun, there would be a bunch of dead people lying on the floor around him.

"There we go," the man continued like he'd dealt with a problem and not erased his wife. "How about we have that talk now?"

The Doctor glanced at the spot where she'd disappeared from. That was where she would reappear, mid-sentence, like she'd lost no time at all. She'd be confused, scared, and a little angry but at least she wouldn't be anywhere near the man who had ordered it in the first place.

"Fine," he snapped, walking towards the building he had been directed to. "Make it brief. No jokes, no compliments, no fawning over how spectacular I am. I'm a busy man and I don't appreciate flattery."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," the man replied. He sounded amused. The Doctor hated that.

"And your goons follow," he added. "There's no need to keep waiting for her. I assume you'll keep Jack dead as long as it takes, correct?"

"That is the plan," the man agreed, giving a silent cue for his men to follow him. "He is a slippery one, though. He just doesn't want to stay dead."

 _~0~0~0~_

The Doctor's inklings had been correct. The moment they'd stepped into the rundown building, the difference almost smacked him in the face. The walls were shiny with marble, the floor complimented it perfectly whilst also showing off a rather obscene amount of wealth. There wasn't a sign of anyone else in the building but he assumed that they were hiding away from the boss man. People like that loved to show their power over their domains.

He didn't particularly care. Nor did he care about the door that obviously led to a stairway which was obviously the way to where Jack was being held – oh, there he went noticing things again. Did this body have a noticing face like his old one? When he finally got to the bottom of this absolutely infuriating affair he would have to ask Danielle. He wasn't sure if he wanted one or not because people didn't seem to like it. Craig was terrified of his noticing face.

The office he was taken to just continued the theme of being better than anyone else. Under any other circumstances the Doctor would have dismissed the man as a pain in the side of the universe, but he couldn't exactly do so when he held Danni's very existence in his hands. The Doctor had to play nice. He _hated_ playing nice.

"Please, have a seat," the man offered as he headed around the oversized desk. The Doctor shook his head.

"I'll stand," he replied. "I find it better for running away."

The man chuckled. "I can understand that," he replied, sitting down anyway. There was no denying that the chair was supposed to be some sort of throne. "I'm sure you'll be wanting to get back to Danielle the moment she reappears?" The Doctor didn't reply, just shot the man a look that told him he hated people stating the obvious. "I wouldn't worry about that, Doctor. Even if she does come back, it won't be for very long. I doubt she will miss you."

Again, the Doctor didn't acknowledge his words. Of course she would miss him, even if she was only back for a second. She loved him as much as he loved her.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked. "Why are you trying to erase my wife?"

"Straight to the point," the man said with a nod. "As I'd heard. I like someone who's direct."

"Then, _directly_ , get to the point," the Doctor retorted. "Why do you want rid of my wife?"

"Do you know what planet you're on, Doctor?" the man asked in reply. "Or what year it is? Or did you just follow the trail of that over indulgent Captain of yours?"

The Doctor sighed heavily. "Tell me," he said in exasperation.

"You're on Edhurd, 3346."

The Doctor frowned, shaking his head. "No, that's not right," he stated. "Edhurd was in a three-hundred-year period of growth and prosperity at that time. You must be mistaken."

"I'm really not," the man replied. "We were doing splendidly until your wife showed up. There was chaos, carnage. Families were torn apart, our infrastructure collapsed and the military took over the government. Only a few of us remember what should have been happening but that's all slowly fading as well. Hence the, well," he tapped the eyepatch, "rather primitive technology. Your wife cannot be stopped when it happens, so the only option is to remove her from the equation."

The Doctor scoffed. "That's not my wife," he dismissed. "You've got your stories wrong. I'd offer to help, but you've not exactly endeared yourself to us. Plus, once the Captain is free, your life is very limited. Even I can't get him to stop with the guns."

The man looked sympathetic, which was rather annoying. Like he believed the Doctor was just in denial and not right. It was a look he saw often, because people always seemed to think he was wrong, but he wasn't about this.

"Oh, Doctor, your wife is a scar on the universe," he explained, standing up and walking over to a cabinet that lined the wall. He opened it up and brought out a brown envelope. He walked over, pulling out a picture. He held it out to the Doctor. "You can't see it, but you will. She needs to be stopped."

The Doctor snatched the photo off him, turning it around so it was upright. It was a screenshot from a security camera of a rather well-lit area. And there, in the middle, wearing all black and carrying a gun was his Danielle.

"I have stories to tell you Doctor. But first, you must accept the fact that your wife is not what she has led you to believe. The Time Child must be stopped, at any cost."


	9. Chapter 8

Danni had to be grateful, at least, that when she reappeared back in the universe she remembered that she'd been wiped out to begin with. Like every other time she had been erased, she felt as though she had not lost a moment but time had continued ticking around her. However, this time she had known it was coming and it made the reappearance much easier to deal with.

Instead of being terrified, she was furious. Absolutely fuming. Someone had killed Jack, killed her father, her _family_ just to get to her. Well, it had worked. They'd gotten to her. She'd make sure they never forgot her.

She hadn't been left alone. It took only a second but she noticed the men around her with their communications devices. The sight of the eyepatches they wore actually irritated her more. She didn't need reminders of her past. It was her future she was more concerned about.

She didn't have a lot of time, she knew. They'd continue to kill Jack as long as it took to keep her erased. She just had to use the time she had to her advantage.

She surprised everyone by turning and running away from the building, back towards the TARDIS. She knew that whatever trouble the Doctor was in couldn't be helped by a woman who could barely continuously exist anymore.

"River!" she cried, hand to her ear to activate her communications device. "I need you to do something! I need you to find a camera!"

" _A camera?"_ River asked, sounding as confused as she felt.

"Yes! Something we can record video on!"

" _What about your phone?"_ River replied. " _Danni, what's going on?_ "

But it was too late. Danni's foot left the ground and then her entire person left the time line.

 _~0~0~0~_

The Doctor rifled through the pile of papers that he'd been handed. Each one detailed eye witness accounts of her wife running around, gun in hand and causing havoc. There was a _body count_. He couldn't believe it, yet there it was in front of his face. An attack on the city with so many causalities and Danielle seemed to be neck deep in it all.

"Why did she, supposedly, do this?" the Doctor asked, keeping the attitude that he didn't believe anything at the front to hide his genuine concern.

"There was peace on our planet, but that didn't mean that crime wasn't an issue," the man explained. "We had a few crime families hanging about, keeping the police busy. I can't say I'm ashamed to admit I was one of them."

"There's the surprise of the day," the Doctor murmured to himself sarcastically.

"But, unfortunately, not every family was as happy to toe the line between mischief and carnage as the others. One family became particularly too headstrong and tried to take over our city hall. In retaliation, the police came out in full force. We very rarely would have a stand-off situation like it. A lot of good and bad people died. It wasn't particularly pleasant to watch." The man riffled through some of the folders until he found the one he was looking for. "But no matter what happened, nothing seemed to work. For every person gunned down in the Gagliardi family was just replaced almost instantly. The police, eventually, were overwhelmed and brought in the military." He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to the Doctor.

It was what appeared to be an internal memo from the city hall, proclaiming how the city was now under military control until the Gagliardi family was under control. There were plenty of details that the Doctor discarded – all about press releases and other public affair business. He knew to go straight to the signature.

"I'm guessing Mayor Johnston was on the take?" he retorted.

"Mayor Johnston was the head of the Gagliardi family," the man replied. "The military was under his thumb, and soon they were taking over the next town over. And then the next. There was resistance, of course, but nothing ever stuck. They had too much power."

"I'm still not sure what this has to do with my wife," the Doctor told him, putting the memo down. "And I'm very swiftly losing what little patience I have with you."

"About two years ago there was an uprising. A lot of the dismembered crime families banded together to fight the Gagliardi syndicate. We may not be the best people, but what we had before worked for everyone. Our attempt was foiled, though. We were caught because your wife tipped the government off. And, to top it all off, she was part of the raid."

The evidence in front of him suggested that the man in front of him was telling the truth, and with open talk of his less-than-lawful past the Doctor was inclined to believe him. Trouble was, he knew his wife. Even if it really was Danielle in the photographs then there would have been a reason she was siding with mobsters.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked the man in front of him.

"Jason McDonald," he introduced. "I was once married to Jack Harkness."

 _~0~0~0~_

Danni reappeared once again, continuing to run down the street and away from the people watching her. They were going to keep giving commands and Jack was going to keep dying. Those were two things that she wasn't currently in control of at the moment. She had to work with what she had.

"River!" she called. "Get the bloody TARDIS here!"

" _Doing it now,_ " River's voice replied in her ear. Danni caught the sight of the TARDIS fading into existence before disappearing…

Then reappearing. Was it getting darker? Probably. She didn't have time to worry about that. She rushed into the TARDIS. River was waiting by the console.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"The Doctor's been Doctor-napped, I'm being watched and Jack is being killed every time I'm seen. I can't stop it so you have to," Danni explained, panting slightly as she leant against the console for a moment.

"But I can't leave the TARDIS," River reminded. "The moment I do I'm going to forget you when you're erased."

"That's what the video is for," Danni explained. "And the eyepatch."

"The eyepatch?" River repeated as Danni pulled open a hatch on the TARDIS console. She started rummaging through, discarding everything in her path. She found the small black eyepatch almost instantly, though, and knew that it was down the TARDIS's want to help her.

"Thanks, sweetie," she said gratefully before holding it out to River. "Record a video of _you_ explaining everything. Then you're going to leave the TARDIS and save Jack."

"Why don't you?" River asked in reply as she popped the eyepatch on. The sight of it felt so familiar that she didn't question what it would do, even though she didn't have any memory of ever seeing the small device before.

"Because they don't know when I've popped back into existence now they can't see me," Danni explained, pulling the monitor around to her. River watched her type on the console. "So they'll fall back on their plan of just keeping Jack dead. There's no guarantee that I'm going to be around much longer, nor will you believe some random blonde woman talking to you when you don't remember me."

"Danni, I don't think…"

Danni shot her a look. "I know you, River. I've known you since I was a little kid and since you were too. If some random woman told you she was your daughter you'd dismiss it, even if it was being fed to you through an eyepatch you were wearing."

River couldn't argue with that. "What do you want me to say?" she asked.

"That you're there to save the Doctor," Danni explained. "That your husband is in danger and to save him you have to save Jack Harkness."

River's nosed wrinkled up in displeasure. "No way. I'm not pretending to be his wife."

"The River without Danni loves the Doctor more than anything in the universe," Danni snapped. "I don't have time for this, River. Tell yourself about your husband and get on…"

And that was it. Danni disappeared in front of her and River could only stare at the spot she had been standing at with dread pulling in the pit of her stomach. She'd seen Danni's face before she'd blinked out of existence. The anger and the fear were very much real, and suddenly River realised that her daughter might never come back to life.

She popped the eyepatch on and turned to the part of the console she'd set the camera up on. "Mels, listen up," she started firmly. "We've got big problems and, as always, we're the only one who is competent enough to fix them…"

 _~0~0~0~_

The Doctor let out a bark of a laugh. "Oh, I get it," he sneered. "This has nothing to do with my wife, does it?" He chucked the memo onto the desk. "This is some jilted lover act of revenge. I'm not in a crime drama, I'm in a bloody rom com."

Jason didn't look best pleased to be dismissed so readily by the Doctor. "He told me about his daughter," Jason explained. "She wasn't at the wedding, though, was she? She doesn't care. She never cares, that's what got our planet into this state."

"Let me tell you something very specific about Danielle," the Doctor replied. "She goes to every single event she is ever invited to. Every wedding, funeral and birthday party. She is absolutely awful about wasting time on these stupid parties. If she didn't go to your wedding, it's because Jack didn't think that it was important enough for her to be there. You should take it up with him, not taking it out on my wife." He took a step forward, eyes glowering. "You are lucky that Danielle believes that I am merciful man," he said darkly. "And you are lucky it's me here and not her mother. You only get one chance."

"So people keep telling me," Jason replied. "And yet I do still seem to be standing. Funny, that, isn't it?"

"What did Jack say when he realised his ex was trying to wipe out his family?" the Doctor countered. "I can imagine he wasn't best pleased about that. Probably regretting the entire relationship, I would think."

"Harkness knows that it's nothing personal," Jason retorted. "Your anger is understandable, Doctor, but it will also be short lived. The process will be permanent soon. Danielle won't ever have existed." He unclipped his communicator from his belt. "How long until the ceremony?" he asked his crony on the other side.

" _Just under four hours, boss,_ " the voice replied and Jason grinned.

"You'd be best just sitting back, Doctor," he said. "I have no reason to fight you."

The Doctor just stared him down. "Let Harkness go," the Doctor warned. "This is your one chance."

The sympathetic look Jason sent him had the Doctor's blood boiling. "You know it's not going to happen," he replied. "Four more hours, Doctor, and this won't be a problem for you anymore. You'll have your life back, your TARDIS. I'd say you'd be thankful but you won't even remember."

The Doctor turned, heading for the door. "One chance," he repeated. "That's all you get."

Behind the door stood some more of Jason's men, just as he had suspected. He hadn't thought, for a moment, that he was going to get away. "And the cavalry has arrived," he drawled.

"I wish this could have gone differently, Doctor," Jason said remorsefully. "Lock him up with Harkness."

 _~0~0~0~_

As the two men in suits walked past her, River pressed herself deeper in the shadows. Breaking into buildings was second nature to her so this part was rather ordinary. She knew all the tricks, she knew how to get herself out of trouble if she needed to, and she knew how to get herself right into the middle of it should the situation call for it.

The problem was; she didn't know why she was doing it in the first place. She'd pushed herself into the shadows not just because she knew she was breaking into the building ahead, but because she wasn't entirely sure why she was there in the first place. The Doctor was in there… she thought, was that right?

Probably. He did get himself in the worst of situations when she wasn't paying attention. He didn't like to make it easy for her to love him, but then again she had known what she was getting into.

She also wasn't quite sure why her eye was covered. The moment she was in the clear she reached up to take whatever was stuck to her off. Her fingers brushed against it and suddenly it was activated. She hid her surprise well, but the sound of her own voice did startle her.

" _Mels, listen up,_ " her voice spoke. The image of herself in the TARDIS filled her mind. " _We've got big problems and, as always, we're the only one who is competent enough to fix them. First, yes, I am you. I don't have time to prove it, you're just going to have to accept it."_

The version of her in her head paused, as if waiting for her to argue. River sighed heavily to herself. As if she had much choice, anyway.

" _The Doctor is in danger,"_ the image told her. " _Someone is killing Jack Harkness and the Doctor has gone in to save him. Like usual he's managed to get himself caught and it's up to us to save him._ "

"Nothing new there," River murmured. "What did Jack do this time?"

" _I'm not sure how much you know, but today is when we graduated. Or, rather, where Past-Us is graduating. We need to save the Doctor and Jack before the end of the ceremony, which I've calculated is in about four hours from when I'm recording this. The most important thing in the universe rides on you saving Jack. Our daughter."_

"I'm sorry?" River retorted before she could catch herself.

" _You're not going to believe me. The moment I step out of the TARDIS I'm going to forget. That's what this is. It's a rescue attempt but not for the Doctor, or for Jack. You have to save our daughter. You have to save Danni. Don't screw this up."_

The image died as the recording ended. River wasn't sure what to think. She couldn't remember having a daughter which was, she knew, something she would have remembered. However she also knew that she was good enough to not fall victim to a fake version of herself. But a daughter?

She needed answer. And that answer came in the form of a runaway Time Lord and his omnisexual friend. The building she was in front of seemed so easy to break into that it seemed laughable, but she didn't take any chances. With a quick scan of the area, she headed back the way she came. She needed to do a loop back around and head in the back.

 _~0~0~0~_

In true villain fashion, the Doctor was pushed into the room before the door was slammed shut behind him. Luckily they didn't chain him up to anything, only locking the door behind them. Honestly, he had gotten used to a better class of bad guys. They had tried to take his sonic screwdriver off him but a quick bit of pickpocketing had fixed that.

"Hey, Doc," Jack greeted. He was chained to the ceiling, which again wasn't anything new. "Was wondering when you were coming to visit?"

"Yes, well, you do like to get yourself into trouble when I'm not around to look after you," the Doctor retorted. He walked over, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "You really need to pick your boyfriends better, Harkness. I can't go around stopping them whenever they get into a temper tantrum because you've moved onto better things."

Jack frowned. "Boyfriend?" he repeated.

"Well, husband," the Doctor corrected, undoing one of the cuffs around his wrists. Jack groaned slightly as his weight shifted to one side, but he was grateful to be let down. "Well, ex-husband," he continued. "He's erasing Danielle, but I think it's more down to you dumping him."

"I know I get around a bit, but I do think I'd remember marrying…" Jack started before trailing of. "Oh."

The Doctor shot him a look. "'Oh' indeed," he drawled. "Just how many people have you married, Harkness?"

"Not many," Jack dismissed, rubbing his wrists when the Doctor unlocked the other cuff. "I did have a three-month trip on Titan 7, though, that I don't have much memory of. I did have a _lot_ of paperwork after, though. A couple of divorces, some quick pay-outs…"

He looked rather proud of this fact, but the Doctor couldn't say he agreed. However, there was sound outside the door and both of them realised just what it meant.

"Danielle's back," the Doctor commented. "How are they treating you?"

"Usually just a quick shot to the head," Jack replied. "We're not going to be able to escape with me alive. Quick, lock me back up again."

The Doctor did as he said and Jack was hanging from the ceiling again. The door opened and the Doctor stepped out of the way as a gunshot rang out. Jack barely made a noise but the Doctor turned his head, grimacing at the blood splatter. The door was quickly locked again, leaving Jack hanging from the ceiling, dead.

It wasn't that the Doctor didn't care that his friend had been killed, he just knew that getting upset by it wasn't going to solve the issue they had at that moment. So, he just waited it out until Jack took that deep breath that said he was alive again. The bullet wound was gone.

"We're not going to be able to get out while they're still trying to kill me," Jack stated. "We need a clear run out. I can only leave when there's no one else left out there."

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised. "River is in the TARDIS."

Jack groaned again. "Isn't there enough of my ex's here, Doc?" he retorted.

"You have no one to blame but yourself," the Doctor replied. "If you could stop flirting with every single person you come across, maybe we could get about our lives."

"Yeah, yeah, so you've said," Jack grumbled.

The Doctor quietly unlocked the door, wondering if they were just letting him escape. For some reason they really didn't want to keep him contained for too long.

"Doc?" The Doctor turned around. "Hurry up, yeah? If we cross the moment where I should have met River without me being there, the universe is going to correct the mistake. I can't lose Danni."

"Neither can I," the Doctor replied. "Hang tight, I'll be back."


	10. Chapter 9

Danni's head was starting to spin. She reappeared in the TARDIS and looked around, hoping that she'd been brought to life at the end of this horrific ordeal. She hadn't, though, as she appeared to be on her own. There was no way the Doctor would have left her to come back to life on her own if he could help it. She looked at the monitor again and saw nothing but the street outside. River had gone, the Doctor had been captured but at least she knew Jack was alive. At the moment.

She rubbed her temples, wincing at the headache that was starting to pound in her skull. She really hoped that she wasn't going to suffer any permanent damage from being erased so many times. She felt a chill run through her at the thought. What would happen if it started to affect everyone's memories even when she was back in existence? What if it affected _hers?_

She grabbed the monitor, pulling it around to create a video like she knew River had done. She couldn't just let herself disappear without leaving something behind. "Theta," she started. "My name's Danielle Fielding. I'm your wife, believe it or not. I'm making this in case we can't save all the moments in time. When I first met you, I was twenty-two years old. I'm now nearer seven hundred, and we've led a fantastic life together. I'll tell you it from your perspective. I first jumped into your life when you were in Cardiff with Rose…"

 _~0~0~0~_

The Doctor really didn't like leaving Jack behind, but he was so on edge that it was near the bottom of his list of worries. Each time Jack was killed he felt Danielle being ripped from the time line and it didn't get better each time it happened. It made every single thing a little bit more frustrating, and he didn't have a lot of patience to begin with. Hiding in shadows was wasting valuable time. He just needed a distraction so that he could get Jack out in one piece and back on his intended time line. He never thought he'd be trying to get the rather amorous Captain a chance to bed yet another person. How times had changed.

For a rather simple building it had a rather complicated layout. Or, rather, it had such a simple and uniform layout that the Doctor couldn't tell which way he was going at all. He couldn't tell if he was running in circles or actually making some headway, which just infuriated him longer. Didn't anyone understand that his wife was in danger? Would a map really be asking too much?

The sound of heals clicking on the stone floor had him darting into a doorway, pulling the door close slightly but just enough for him to look out. He could definitely take down a couple of the guards that were roaming, making sure that Jack was safe and continuously dead, but he knew it was just pull more attention and more mobster thugs to kill Jack. He was trying to keep the man alive for as long as possible, after all.

The source of the heels ran past in a blur of curly hair. He frowned and chucked the door open. "River?"

The woman skidded to a stop, turning around to see a furious Time Lord. The look in his eyes and the way his eyebrows pointed down would have scared off most people. River Song was not most people. She smirked slightly as she walked back towards him. "Oh, Doctor, what a surprise," she drawled. "Needing me to save you yet again? How do you get along without me?"

The Doctor tipped back as she tried to kiss him before taking a step back to get out of her way. "You were _supposed_ to stay on the TARDIS," he snarled at her.

"Yes, I remember," she retorted. "And yet you're the one who had to get themselves in danger. Don't worry, sweetie. The missus is here to save you."

The Doctor pointed at her a couple of times, before realising that she would have stepped out of the TARDIS for a reason. And, admittedly, River was the woman of grand, over the top actions. She would be useful.

"Alright," he declared. "Under two conditions. One; we are _not_ married. Don't act like we are, it's incredibly off-putting." He paused for a moment to see if she would protest. "Two; what the hell are you wearing that eyepatch for?"

"Apparently, I decided to leave myself a little message," River explained, not at all fazed by his demands. She knew her Doctor very well and this barely scratched the surface of his stranger behaviour. She pulled it off and handed it to him. "I don't seem to be making much sense, though."

As he placed it on, he activated the video recording. At least not every trace of his wife was being erased from the universe. It meant that he still had a chance of saving her. It was when all of the little references to her life were gone that he had to be worried. And he definitely hadn't forgotten her, which was good. If he forgot her…

Then he'd have to be married to River. And he'd _like_ it.

He ripped off the eyepatch and handed it to her. "I'm going to guess that was Danielle's doing," he commented, not waiting for her answer. "What do you remember about her?"

"Not a lot," River admitted. "I remember you turning up with a woman called Danni, checking to see if I knew her. A few times, actually."

"We were looking for the version of you that remembered," he explained before looking up and down the hallway. "Alright, short version. You have a daughter you don't remember. Jack is the father, also you don't remember that. Don't question it, just go with it. Jack is being killed to keep her erased from time, but every time he resurrects she comes back into existence. She reappears, he's killed, you get the idea."

"And we have to break him out without him dying so this Danielle can stay in existence?" River theorised. He nodded.

"Any ideas?" he shot back. "Any at all?"

"Plenty," River retorted. "However, surely the easiest is to get the TARDIS and fly it down to wherever Harkness is being kept?"

The Doctor blinked, surprised and a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought of that sooner. His thoughts had been so disjointed at the constant feel of his wife not quite being there that he'd not even thought about the TARDIS.

"Ah."

"'Ah' indeed," River drawled. "Like I said; what would you do without me? This way, my Love."

She led him back the way she came having been able to work the layout out pretty quickly. The Doctor followed. "You remember her coming to see you, though?" he asked.

"You visited a few times. Usually after a younger you had just left," River explained. "She seemed a little emotional, but I figured that was just because she was with you. Not everyone can handle your massive ego, after all."

"I do not have a massive ego," the Doctor grumbled. "And even if I did I feel it's wholly deserved at this point. Do you remember what she looks like?"

"Blonde and short," River replied. "Didn't seem too out of the ordinary. Maybe we should discuss the idea of you marrying me _and_ my daughter."

"I told you to not act like we're married," he countered. "I'll leave you behind."

"No you won't," River replied smugly. "You like me too much for that."

The Doctor paused. That was something that Danielle would have said. In fact, he was sure she had said the exact same thing on more than one occasion. Perhaps it did make sense that he'd marry River in an alternate timeline. Even when she didn't exist he was always looking for her.

"I'm too sentimental," he muttered to himself before raising his voice slightly. "Let's just get out of here. She's been gone for days, that's not new," the Doctor retorted. "We have to get Harkness out. Danielle will reappear and we can get him to your graduation on time."

"My graduation?" River repeated with a wrinkle of her nose. "You didn't even come to my graduation."

"Not yours, no."

 _~0~0~0~_

Danni's head was starting to spin. She reappeared in the TARDIS and looked around, hoping that she'd been brought to life at the end of this horrific ordeal. She hadn't, though, as she appeared to be on her own. There was no way the Doctor would have left her to come back to life on her own if he could help it. She looked at the monitor again and saw nothing but the street outside. River had gone, the Doctor had been captured but at least she knew Jack was alive. At the moment.

She rubbed her temples, wincing at the headache that was starting to pound in her skull. She really hoped that she wasn't going to suffer any permanent damage from being erased so many times. She felt a chill run through her at the thought. What would happen if it started to affect everyone's memories even when she was back in existence? What if it affected _hers?_

She grabbed the monitor, pulling it around to create a video like she knew River had done. She couldn't just let herself disappear without leaving something behind. "Theta," she started. "My name's Danielle Fielding. I'm your wife, believe it or not. I'm making this in case we can't save all the moments in time. When I first met you, I was twenty-two years old. I'm now nearer seven hundred, and we've led a fantastic life together. I'll tell you it from your perspective. I first jumped into your life when you were in Cardiff with Rose…"

 _~0~0~0~_

"Are you sure this is the right way?" the Doctor asked. River nodded yet again.

"Yes, I'm sure," she told him. "Like I was sure before, and I'll be sure in a few minutes when you answer again. God, I thought you got better the older you got."

"I _am_ better," he grumbled. "And I'm not your husband. Stop saying stuff like that."

"I'll stop saying it when you stop acting like my husband," she told him bluntly. She wasn't convinced about everything that he was saying was true, but the rest of his behaviour rang true with the Doctor that she had always known. Contrary, oblivious and running around without a plan. The body changed but the man didn't.

"See?" she pointed out. "Right there. Where I parked her, because I always park her correctly."

Getting out of the building had been actually pretty easy. River had been able to find her way out without getting lost, which the Doctor had to begrudgingly be thankful for. She had taken them in the completely wrong direction, though, whilst insisting that she was going the right way. He'd had half a mind to just ditch her and go to the TARDIS himself but he knew that he was going to need her help.

It didn't help that the TARDIS came into view where she said the blue box had been parked. He wasn't happy, but it was also, again, near the bottom of the list of things that he was angry about.

The Doctor pushed the door of the TARDIS. It didn't open. With a frown he tried again, giving it a jiggle. "Oh come on, not now," he groaned. "Danielle's in trouble. You've always liked her better. Open the door."

"Trouble getting her started?" River asked. "Not a problem you have often, is it sweetie?"

The Doctor barely shot her a look. "Now is not the time to flirt, River," he scolded. "I don't have time for you to think you and I have any sort of relationship." He backed up slightly to try and work out how to tackle the door as River rolled her eyes.

"Someone is Mr Grumpy today," she muttered. "No matter, I'll fix that." She lifted her hand up, clicking her fingers together to open the door. The smug look fell off her face as the lock didn't click open and the Doctor felt a small amount of satisfaction at it.

"She always opens for me," River commented, surprised.

"No, she doesn't," the Doctor retorted. "She opens for me and Danni. You're not my wife, River, you're going to just have to deal with it because I don't have time to argue about it anymore." He raised his hand, clicking his fingers together like River did. He hadn't done that since he had regenerated, but hearing that welcomed click of the doors unlocking had him wondering if he should bring it back again. It was rather cool, after all.

Apart from dim light coming from the time rotor, the room was bathed in darkness and seemed entirely too quiet for his liking. He didn't dwell on it for very long, though. "Danni!" he called as he opened the door. "Danni, are you in here?!"

 _~0~0~0~_

Danni's head was starting to spin. She reappeared in the TARDIS and looked around, hoping that she'd been brought to life at the end of this horrific ordeal. She hadn't, though, as she appeared to be on her own. There was no way the Doctor would have left her to come back to life on her own if he could help it. She looked at the monitor again and saw nothing but the street outside. River had gone, the Doctor had been captured but at least she knew Jack was alive. At the moment.

She rubbed her temples, wincing at the headache that was starting to pound in her skull. She really hoped that she wasn't going to suffer any permanent damage from being erased so many times. She felt a chill run through her at the thought. What would happen if it started to affect everyone's memories even when she was back in existence? What if it affected _hers?_

She grabbed the monitor, pulling it around to create a video like she knew River had done. She couldn't just let herself disappear without leaving something behind. "Theta," she started. "My name's Danielle Fielding. I'm your wife, believe it or not. I'm making this in case we can't save all the moments in time. When I first met you, I was twenty-two years old. I'm now nearer seven hundred, and we've led a fantastic life together. I'll tell you it from your perspective. I first jumped into your life when you were in Cardiff with Rose…"

 _~0~0~0~_

The Doctor stared as Danni shimmered out of existence, hearts breaking and voice catching in his throat. He felt the rip of her from time. She hadn't looked right. She'd been almost see-through. She was fading. River stopped next to him with a soft look of realisation on her face.

"Is that her?" she asked him. "My daughter?"

"That's her," the Doctor confirmed. "My Danielle."

Danni shimmered into existence again. She looked around, again. She ran past him and River to the console and grabbed to monitor. "Theta," she started. "My name's Danielle Fielding. I'm your wife…"

"Theta?" River repeated before looking up at the Doctor. "Is that you?"

He nodded. "Don't ever call me that," he commanded lowly. "The TARDIS has put her in a time loop."

"Why, though?" River asked. "You said that I was protected from her disappearing because I was in the TARDIS. Surely it works the same for her as well?"

"The damage must be becoming more permanent. The TARDIS is trying to save her by looping her back over that point in time."

"… I'll tell it from your perspective. I first jumped…" The Doctor walked over, standing by her side as she spoke into the camera with no idea that he was even there.

"The TARDIS did always like her," he continued. "That's why it's so dark in here. She's rerouting all of her power to keep Danni as preserved as she can."

"She doesn't look like me," River commented.

"Before she regenerated she looked like Amelia," the Doctor replied. His fingers danced across the console, checking the TARDIS's vitals. "We can't use the TARDIS because she doesn't have enough power to take us to Harkness and keep Danielle preserved."

"Well if we save Harkness, she'll be brought back anyway," River reasoned. "We should just fly down and get him."

"No!" the Doctor replied firmly. "The TARDIS stays. What other ideas do you have?"

River sighed as the girl shimmered and continued to explain her and the Doctor's first meeting. She had to admit that she wasn't exactly happy trying to save of the Doctor's other love interests. She wasn't stupid enough to think that she was all there was, but it felt rather counterproductive to encourage that behaviour. Then again, how many husbands had she had over her time? And yet there had only ever been one that counted.

"Well, there are a lot of men around with a lot of fire power. What do we know?"

"We know that the guy in change wants to stop Danielle interfering with a war. And that he was married to Harkness."

"They'll be watching Harkness like a hawk. We have to give them something to look at instead."

The Doctor looked at her with one eyebrow cocked. "You have an idea?" he asked. She nodded.

"Just the one. We need to draw them out, and we need to get Jack out, correct?" she asked as she dipped down to open the console top. The Doctor really didn't like that. She shouldn't have known how to do that.

"Why are you just repeating what I said?" he asked shortly in reply.

"And Jack can't die forever, right?" she asked, ignoring his tone. She was used to it. His tact had never been great.

"I'm not sure how this is relevant," the Doctor snapped. He couldn't think straight. All he could pay attention to was Danni talking next to them. When she had taken the 'exit strategy' in the Bank of Karabraxos he had been so focused on finding the Architect and make them pay for taking her away from him, this time he felt much more lost. His thoughts shot off in a million different directions.

"Because…" She pulled out a canister, placing it onto the console dramatically. "How do you feel about making a bit of a mess?"

The Doctor blinked, them berated himself silently for not thinking about it first. "Harkness is stuck in there," he pointed out. "If we do this he is going to suffer."

"Will he mind?" she asked. He turned and looked at Danni, who was smiling as she retold the story of the him meeting her in Cardiff. She wouldn't be happy if she found out that Jack had burned to save her, even if he came back out of the other end. Perhaps he could get Jack out before anything terrible happened to him.

Jack wouldn't mind, though. He'd understand the moment he realised what was going on. "Let's go," the Doctor declared.

"Always so impatient," River retorted. "We'll soon fix that."

She sauntered out in front of him, happy for the adventure. The Doctor paused and looked back at Danni, who hung her head for a moment then looked back up at the monitor.

"I hope this lasts," she told her recording. "I've no idea if it will outlive me. But I love you so much, Theta. Remember that you were always loved." She shook her head. "After Dickens ran we were stuck in the basement with the Gelth…"

She shimmered out of existence and he steeled himself before he followed River out. He refused to lose her. He refused to let her be erased.


	11. Chapter 10

Jack hated being blown up. It was a common misconception that being blown up was pretty painless. That, because of the speed of the death, that no one felt any pain because the sensation wouldn't have time to reach the brain to be felt. It was complete bullshit. He always felt himself be ripped to shreds. He always felt his flesh hitting the walls, and the floor as he was torn apart by the blast. And he _hated_ it.

Of course, no one knew about the following part. The bit where he slowly grew back his limbs, and his skin, and his eyes and everything else was never a fun time. It usually was quite quick, but it never felt that way. Each layer of skin was agony. The pain made him wish more and more than he didn't come back from the dead. The time afterwards always made him wish he never came back from the dead.

But then something would happen, something miraculous that would make him glad he was there to see it.

This wasn't one of those times.

He usually flailed when he was fully regenerated. He took a deep breath and shot up into a sitting position. Someone grabbed his arms and tried to hold him still. "Calm down," the voice snapped. "You're fine."

Jack wasn't even sure why he was on the floor. His memories came back thick and fast, reminding him that he had been chained up in a basement by an ex. He should have been dangling from the ceiling. And the room, certainly, shouldn't have been doused in sunlight and full of rubble. It looked like the whole building had come down on him.

He turned to the person who had kept him steady and saw the steely eyes of the Doctor staring back. Ah, so the building _had_ come down on him.

"Your doing, Doc?" he asked as the Doctor helped him back to his feet.

"Not quite," the Doctor replied. "Hope you don't mind us blowing you up. We didn't really have much choice."

Jack shook his head. "'We'?" he repeated. "You and Danni?" The look on the Doctor's face suggested that his daughter still wasn't safe. "She'll be coming back in a minute now I'm alive," he said to reassure them both.

The Doctor didn't look like he agreed. "The TARDIS has got her trapped in a time loop. At this point there's not much for her to come back to," he explained. "But hopefully, now you are back, we can unlock her."

"How do we remember her if there's that little of her left?" Jack asked, confused.

"I think we're the only ones who do."

"Have you two finished the family reunion?" someone called. River appeared on the floor above, stood in the rubble and looking down at the pair. Jack recalled the eyepatches from stories Danni had told him in the past and quickly realised the reason she was wearing it. "They're going to be coming for us soon."

"We're coming," the Doctor snapped. "Keep that ridiculous hair on and go keep lookout!"

River didn't seem too bothered by his sharp tone, disappearing again over the rubble to do as he had asked. Jack gratefully took the Doctor's hand as he helped him off the ground. The Doctor, then, began to aggressively brush him down.

"Doc, don't think I'm complaining, because I'm not, but have you got the wrong Harkness again?" Jack asked.

"You can't look like a building fell down on you when we get back," the Doctor told him. "I'll never hear the end of it." With one last brush to get the worst of the dust off him, the Doctor headed over to one of walls. It had enough rubble on next to it for him to quickly climb up and out of the giant hole in the floor above. "Come on!"

Jack couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at his rudeness. If Danni had been there she would have told him off, which just reminded him of how she was fading away. Considering that fact, the Doctor was actually being rather polite.

Jack pulled himself out of the destroyed room as well. "You do like to make a mess," he commented.

"That was her," the Doctor replied, motioning over to River who was on the street, gun at the ready. "I just wanted to scare people off. She's always a bit dramatic." He scowled. "She's trying to impress me. The quicker we get the universe back on track, the better."

"Impress you?" Jack repeated, incredulous. "River? She hates you more than she hates me."

"Not this River. Without Danni this is the one who—" he really didn't want to say it out loud "- who marries me."

He expected Jack to laugh, or mention what Danni had told him based on what the Face of Boe had said. Instead Jack looked incredibly worried and pulled the Doctor to a stop. "She's married to you?" he asked.

"I'm not married to her," the Doctor said firmly. "Don't go thinking for one second that I choose this over…"

"I'm not," Jack interrupted. "What I do know, though, is River is clever, and smart and determined. Do you really trust her to even _want_ to save Danni?"

"She doesn't have much of a choice. I've already saved her by saving you," the Doctor snapped before glancing back at River. "River is a lot of things, but she loves her daughter more than anything. No memory is gone, they just become stories and missing feelings. With Danni still having _some_ effect on the universe, no matter how small, River will have that obsession deep inside. She would never hurt Danni."

Jack let go of his arm. "If you say so," Jack said slowly, unconvinced. "But, be careful."

The Doctor shot him a look. How dare he, for a moment, think he wouldn't do _anything_ to bring his wife back? Did people really think he wasn't anything but entirely single-minded when she was in danger?

He stormed over to River. "Come on," he said yet again, because people were entirely too slow. He just wanted to get back to the TARDIS, where Danni would be waiting for him. Now that Jack was safe there was no reason why she wouldn't just reappear again. He hadn't felt her come back into the universe, which was worrying him even more, but he chose not to focus on that. He just needed to get back to the TARDIS.

"Harkness!"

Jack groaned, coming to a stop at the sound of his ex-husband calling his name in anger. He turned around and looked at the man. Just seeing him made him furious. He was covered in dust as well, with his hair a mess and a large cut on his head. He was slightly dragging his foot behind him. Probably a broken ankle.

Good.

"Look, I'm sure we had a great few days, I am," Jack started, annoyed. "But trying to wipe my daughter from existence to get back at me is definitely taking being dumped too far."

Jason laughed. "You think I was doing this because you dumped me?" he asked, amused. "No, no. I mean, did I take immense pleasure from having to have you killed over and over again? Yes. I'm only human, I'm not afraid to admit that. But, believe it or not, this doesn't have anything to do with you." He wiped the blood off his forehead as it dripped down to his eye. "Your daughter hasn't just destroyed my home. She's destroyed countless others and she needs to be stopped. Bringing her back is just dooming us all."

"That's enough," River sighed, shooting the floor by Jason's feet. The man jumped out of the way, almost surprised. "We're done talking here. Your plan failed. This Danielle is going to be coming back any minute and you're upsetting my husband, so we're leaving."

Jason's brows furrowed, then he grinned widely. "Well, I didn't see that coming," he stated.

"What do you mean?" Jack demanded.

"Time's changed permanently," he explained. "You're alive, which means Danielle is. But she," he motioned to River, "still thinks they're married. I wonder what else has changed."

The Doctor had heard enough. He turned and strode towards the TARDIS, hearts pounding painfully. He had hoped that he'd just not noticed Danielle's reappearance. But the man was right. Something still wasn't right.

When he threw open the TARDIS doors, he saw exactly what it was. Danni shimmered back into existence as she looped back on herself. The TARDIS hadn't released her. He walked over, standing in her path so she passed straight through him.

"Is that…" Jack asked as he stepped through the doors. The Doctor nodded silently.

"We need to do more," he declared. Jack moved out of the way to let River in, who quickly shut the door. "We're going to the graduation. Maybe we need to put you right back on track."

"And you remember her?" River asked Jack curiously.

"You don't?" he asked in reply. River shook her head, bracing herself for the flight.

"Not even a little," she admitted freely. "I'm still not sure I actually believe it. I mean, I would never have a kid. I can't stay still for five minutes, let alone long enough to raise a little brat."

Jack looked over at the Doctor. "You didn't tell her," he stated. The Doctor, becoming increasingly frustrated, didn't even give him glance.

"I'm sorry, I didn't have time to sit around telling everybody's backstories," he snapped. "I've been too busy fighting to save my wife."

"What didn't you tell me?" River asked before turning to Jack. "What didn't he tell me?"

Jack wasn't sure if he should tell River. After all, when they saved Danni she'd remember anyway so it wouldn't particularly matter. But, on some level, it felt like keeping it to himself was worse. "You don't raise Danni," he said lowly. "Neither of us do. We…" he caught himself, "you give her up."

River looked shocked, which was a feat onto itself, he had to admit. "I give her up?" she repeated. "Why the hell would I do that?"

"To keep her safe," Jack explained. "The universe is after Danni. Look what my ex has done. You do it to save your daughter from growing up like you did; hunted and used."

The Doctor let out an angry yell, pulling River away from the horrible revelation and to his temper tantrum. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

"The TARDIS is using all of her power to keep Danielle in the time loop. I can't take her out of the loop because she'll cease to exist and I can't keep her in it because she'll cease to exist!"

"Well, if we fix the time line, it will only be for a moment," Jack reasoned, walking over to see if he could help. All three of them had varying degrees of knowledge of how the TARDIS worked. Perhaps he could see something that the Doctor couldn't in his panic.

"I can't guarantee that, if I release her, she won't fade completely and we'll lose her entirely," the Doctor retorted. "I can't lose my wife. Do you have your manipulator?"

Jack shook his head. "He took it off me," he explained. "And then you blew up the building." He watched Danni disappear at the end of her loop, only to reappear a moment later. "We don't have a choice, Doc."

"I'm not breaking the time loop," he snapped firmly. "I thought you would care more about your daughter."

"Don't," Jack warned him darkly. "I know you're worried. We're all worried. But we can't leave her to wander the same piece of time over and over. It's cruel. We have to let her out."

"No…"

The TARDIS rotor burst into life and the two spun, alarmed, to look at River. She rolled her eyes. "I broke the loop," she explained. "And you two remember her, so can we stop arguing?"

"Do you realise what you could have done?!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"But it _didn't_ ," River pointed out. "Honestly, does she put up with you behaving like this?"

Seeing that he was probably going to be in the middle of a large fight, Jack held up his hands to catch both of their attentions. "Alright, I think we need to calm down," he said firmly. "We're all getting worked up," he quickly looked pointedly at the Doctor, " _understandably,_ but River is right. We still remember her. That's the main thing. It means the time line is reparable. We can get her back."

The Doctor hated when people were right. He also hated getting too emotional, because it just proved everybody right and he hated that too. As the TARDIS landed on the other side of her journey – one that was particularly smooth, probably down to her delight that they were getting Danni back – he stormed away without another word. He opened the door with a bit too much force and stepped out.

River's graduation seemed to be pretty standard. They were in the presentation hall, with all the graduates at the front, walking one by one up onto the stage. Around the student seating were guests, all probably very happy and proud of the people they'd come to support. The room was rather dark, but even in the dim light he was able to spot the younger River very quickly.

"You look bored," Jack commented and the Doctor realised that they'd both joined him. He hadn't noticed as he took stock of the room and the best way to get River and Jack back to… well, he didn't want to think about _that_ part. He just wanted to get it going so he could have Danni back. So he could hold her in his arms, kiss her, love her again without fear of losing her so completely that the memory of their time together would fade away.

"Do you know how long these things go on for?" River whispered in reply. "This is near the end. It's a wonder I don't look murderous."

"If it was so boring why did you stay?" Jack asked curiously.

"Because I had hoped the Doctor might have turned up," River reasoned. "I should have known better at that point. Then again," she glanced to her side, to her husband, "I wasn't exactly wrong, after all."

"Can we get back on track, _please_?" the Doctor snapped. "I'll go grab her, bring her back. You two can get acquainted and flirt, or get drunk, whatever it is you do. Danielle will come back from nothingness, you will stop thinking I'm your husband and everyone will be happy."

"Yes, happy," River muttered. She walked in front of him before he could stride through the hall to her younger self. "I should do it. She's not going to pay attention to you. I'm not even sure I knew this face that young."

"Is that a good idea?" Jack asked, concerned. He still didn't quite believe that River was going to cooperate with the plan. Danni had told him about how the Doctor and River storyline had panned out in her old universe, and while he was sure some of it was exaggerated he was also sure that it had come from a place of truth.

"I can handle talking to myself for five minutes. I'll come back, get you, and you can get to know a version of me who is completely ignorant to your flirting." She walked off, giving them both a wave.

The Doctor shifted anxiously on the spot. He hated leaving anything so serious and vital in the hands of anyone but himself, but they both watched as she approached her younger self. She bent down low, talking animatedly and quickly before motioning over to the two. She stood up straight and walked back. No one seemed to notice the two Rivers, which was probably a blessing.

"You're going to have to go over to her," River told Jack. "You're going to have your work cut out, though. She didn't seem too interested." She looked him up and down. "I can see why."

Jack just smirked. "Trust me, I don't need luck," he told them. He ran a hand through his hair. "This is so weird," he said with a laugh. "I'm about to go, consciously, to conceive my daughter with a woman who hates me." He shrugged. "Don't wait up."

The Doctor didn't even wait for him to make it to the younger River. He strode into the empty TARDIS, letting River close the doors behind them, and right up to where Danielle should have been appearing at any moment. That was where they both stood, holding their breath, as Jack put the events of the evening in motion.

The Doctor didn't dare to fly away. He wasn't sure how he fit into this particular time line. He suspected that, later in his life, he would turn up with Danni and pick Jack and River up – they both had been very vague about the series of events surrounding her conception, perhaps this mess of time was why – but he was certain that now wasn't when he was supposed to be there. Which meant there was a Danni and a Doctor about to turn up. Which mean he needed to move.

But he didn't want to. He didn't want to risk, for a moment, watching when his Danielle appeared back into existence. He didn't want to miss seeing her face again by turning away to the console.

Luckily, he didn't have to. She quickly appeared, the spot where she was standing empty one moment then there she was the next. She blinked, obviously baffled, before she looked right to him, then left to River.

"Why am I on the TARDIS?" she asked. Her question seemed strange and stopped him from reaching out and pulling her close.

"Why wouldn't you be?" he asked in reply.

She turned to him. "Well, I only come with you when mum invites me. And last thing I remember I was in Stormcage."

"Stormcage?" he repeated. "Why-Why would you be in Stormcage?"

"Well, it's where I live, isn't it?" she replied slowly, her brows furrowing. She looked to River. "Mum? What's going on?"

The Doctor didn't like her looking to River for answers instead of him. He didn't like her thinking she lived in Stormcage and not on the TARDIS, where she belonged. He _really_ didn't like the blank way she looked at him, and the way he couldn't feel her when he reached out mentally.

He grabbed her arm, turning her around. "Who am I?" he demanded.

"The Doctor," she said slowly, still obviously confused. "What's going on? Why are you acting so strange?"

"Why am I—" he stuttered out. "What- Who am I?"

"You're the Doctor," Danni replied. "My mum's husband. My step-dad."


End file.
